Code: John
by Theboblinator
Summary: Story "completed". Re-written as Code: Start! (Look on Code Lyoko / SAO crossover category to find it.)
1. Chapter 1: Prologue plus one (Part 1)

**Chapter 1: Prologue Plus One (Part 1)**

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**Authors Note Part 1: Alright. Well, here we are again. I decided to take another look at this, and edit a few things that I figured might have been either lacking, or didn't fit in too well. But, the pairing is going to stay the same. For those of you who didn't read the first version of this story, here are a couple things that I changed. (Note that these were changed from the last version as well)**

**1: Instead of this beginning during eighth grade for the Lyoko Warriors, this instead takes place during ninth grade. Because of this, they will all be in the same grade as Yumi, but they will still be in separate classes for some subjects. However, it also means that it is possible for me to make them have the same classes for some subjects if I want to.**

**2: The ages for the Warriors will all be fifteen. I'm basing this off the mentality that they all missed a deadline where they had to be a certain ****_age_**** by a certain ****_date_**** to enter kindergarten. So now they're all technically a year behind. Know that this is based off an ****_actual_**** school system around the area that I live.**

**Alright, I think that's enough of the authors note. So, without further ado, here's the re-write of this story!**

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**John POV**

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"Jeremie, could you remind me again why it is that we're walking through the sewers in the middle of the night?" I ask my best friend and roommate at Kadic Academy, Jeremie Belpois. Granted, I had an apartment to myself and at the beginning of the year I'd insisted that I didn't want to be a burden, but since the school was also a boarding school, I eventually relented and the agreement ended up being that I would room with him during the week so that I didn't need to get up a six just so that I could make it to school, and on weekends and holidays, I would stay at my apartment so that I could work a few of my own things, and not have to worry about the curfew that the academy implements. Not only is Jeremie really nice, but he's also the smartest kid in the entire academy. His usual dress wear is black shoes, brown jeans that go just past his knees, and a blue sweater-like shirt. He also has blond hair and black glasses since he can't see without them. Unfortunately, when he loses them, he ends up acting like a certain _orange _sweater wearing mystery solver.

As for me, my name's John Hopper. Although in reality, my last name isn't really Hopper. I've just stuck with it through all the different foster homes I've been sent to over the past few years. To tell the truth, I don't know my real last name. But the Hopper's were the first family to take me in, so I kept theirs. Unfortunately, they disappeared at one point without a trace, and I got moved on to a different family. I never knew what happened to them, and I might never know. But, back to the present. I have black hair that looks like it had a fight with an angry raccoon and lost, cobalt colored eyes, and Caucasian skin. My usual dress wear is a white T-shirt underneath a black jacket, and I always wear blue jeans that reach down to my ankles, stopping just before the black converse that I wear. Currently, me and Jeremie are walking through the sewers underneath the city towards an unknown location. At least it's unknown to me. Jeremie keeps walking, but looks over his shoulder to answer my question nonetheless.

"Do you remember how I told you that I was looking for machine parts to finish my miniature robots yesterday?" He asks me. I nod my head in response, remembering how he usually goes looking around for random bits of metal and machinery to apply to his personal mini-robots. "Well, I found a great place. It's the abandoned factory not far from the academy." He continues. I think over what he says, and nod a bit when I realize that a place like that would have plenty of pieces for Jeremie to use.

"Yeah, I suppose that would be a good place to look. But still, why are you bringing _me_ along to see this place?" I ask him, confused as to why it is that he's bringing me to a place that's good for him, but doesn't seem to have any reason for _me_ to visit.

"Well… I found something that I thought you'd find interesting in the factory." He tells me as we reach a ladder leading up to a manhole cover. We climb up and push aside said cover, and I find myself on a bridge with the factory Jeremie was talking about to my right. We walk over to it and when I look in, I don't really see anything special about it. We're in the storage section with random boxes strewn about, and the only thing that confuses me is that the steps only go down a few feet, and then suddenly cut off with ropes dangling from the ceiling for people to slide the rest of the way down.

"Uhh… Jeremie, why do the stairs stop at ropes?" I ask him with a raised eyebrow. He shakes his head and grabs ahold of one of the ropes.

"I don't know." Is his response. I recoil at his answer in shock and confusion.

"The great Jeremie Belpois not knowing something…? The world is coming to an end! Grab your family, friends and pets and hurry to the nearest NASA station to board the space shuttles! We must leave the earth immediately!" I exclaim, waving my arms around while trying hard not to fall to the floor laughing. After I've finished, Jeremie just sighs at my antics and slides down the rope. Then he walks over to a lift on the other side of the room without looking back. I lean over the edge of the stairs to look down at the ground that's probably about 20 feet away, and shrug.

"Eh, why the hell not?" I ask out loud with a shrug before I slide down the rope to the floor below. I reach the bottom and walk over to Jeremie, who's waiting for me in the lift. I walk in, and he presses on the big, red button to descend. It goes down for a few seconds, and then it stops. When the doors open up, I find myself in a room with white walls, a grey floor, and a giant black and yellow object in the center. It has a wider, but shorter, cylinder on the bottom, and a thinner, but taller, cylinder reaching out of the middle. We walk into the room and I look around in wonder that it was right below the rundown factory. And from the looks of things, it was kept in good condition. Meaning either someone else knows about this place, or it was sealed off really well from the outside world. "So… This is what you found yesterday?" I ask Jeremie. He nods his head in response and adjusts his glasses as they slide down his nose slightly.

"Yes. I believe that it's a super-computer mainframe. I haven't started it up because I thought that you might want to be here for it." He tells me with a small smile. I look over at him, raising an eyebrow at his question.

"No shit Sherlock. Of course I want to see this thing powered up!" I exclaim with a large grin. He smirks at my response, and then walks towards the mainframe and presses a button. A panel that has a yellow symbol on it slides apart to reveal a lever. The symbol looked kind of like a dart board with two rings that surround a filled in circle. But it had three large rectangles on the bottom that reach out from the furthest ring, and a smaller one that reaches out of the top. But I dismiss it and look on as the lever pops out for Jeremie to pull. He grabs onto it and pauses for a moment.

"I hope we're not gonna regret this in a minute." He mutters, before taking a breath to steady himself. "Okay… Go!" He exclaims as he pulls down on the lever. The yellow parts of the mainframe start to glow until me and Jeremie have to shield our eyes so that we don't go blind. When the glow finally fades, and a steady humming is heard, Jeremie steps back towards the lift and adjusts his glasses again since some air was released from a fan built into the ground as the power core started up. We glance at one another, before Jeremie enters the lift again and we go up a couple levels. The doors open to the new room, and my eyes widen at the sight.

"Holy… Shit." I mutter as we walk out into the room. There's a circular table-looking object in the middle of the room, and above that is something that looks suspiciously close to Glad0s from Portal hanging from the ceiling. The only difference is that in place of where her face would be, there are a few computer screens and a keyboard. There's also a chair that looks like it can completely move around the "table" in the middle of the room and look at it from all angles. The walls, ceiling, and floor are all tinted green and are made out of metal plates. Though, some of the plates are missing and you can see the wires that are hidden behind them. We walk towards the set up, and Jeremie hops into the chair before he swivels it around so that it's facing the computer. Then he cracks his knuckles, and starts typing away at the keyboard.

"Now, let's see what you've got under the hood my friend." Jeremie says with his usual tone of voice whenever he finds something that interests him. The different screens start to turn on, with constantly changing numbers appearing in tabs. Then, a different tab pops open on the main screen, and shows a pink haired girl with elf-like ears. But she looks like she was made using CGI.

"Woah." I say as I lean towards the computer, putting a hand on the swivel chair so that I won't fall. "What is this? Some sort of video game? Can I play?" I ask Jeremie as we look at the screen. But I don't get an answer from the blond because the CGI girl decides to speak up at that point.

"Who…Who are you? Where am I?" She asks us. Jeremie gasps at this and leans back in surprise, causing his glasses to fall down his nose once again. While he does this, I just stare at the girl on the computer screen in shock. At the girl in the video game who just _talked_ to us. And more than that, she sounded just like _her_. But… That couldn't be. They disappeared when I was just a kid! So how could she be _here_?!

"This is gonna be a long night." I say with a sigh as I finally get over my shock. Looking down at the ground and shaking my head. Still not quite able to believe what's happening.

* * *

The next day, me and Jeremie walk into our classroom and sit down at our lab desk. As we start to take out our books to get ready for class, I notice a kid with blond hair wearing a purple jacket over a pink shirt. He also has on purple jeans and purple shoes. As I notice this, he walks over to Ulrich, another friend of mine, and starts to talk to him. The only weird thing about Ulrich being another friend of mine is that despite both Ulrich and Jeremie being my friends, they don't really talk to one another to become friends themselves. But whatever, it's up to them. A few seconds later, the bane of Ulrich walks in and starts towards him. I lean towards Jeremie with a small smirk appearing on my face. "Don't look now, but here comes the drama queen." I whisper to him. He looks towards Ulrich and gives a smirk of his own as Sissi stops walking and stands in front of Ulrich. She's wearing her usual pink T-shirt with the yellow heart on the front. She also has on her usual yellow headband, and the lighter purple pants which she wears a pink skirt over for some reason. Don't ask me why. _No one_ knows. And she doesn't explain it to anyone either.

At this point, I decide to listen in on their little conversation. It turns out that Sissi has something "important" to tell him. So Ulrich decides to make a wisecrack joke. "Important like, I lost my mascara or my pink T-shirt ran?" He asks in a sarcastic tone. I can't help but chuckle at his joke, which causes the two to glance at me. Sissi looks at me with annoyance, while Ulrich gives a smirk. Then Sissi simply turns away from me with a "Humph" and turns back to Ulrich.

"No, nothing as serious as that." She tells him with a small smile. I have to hold back another chuckle at her response, otherwise I may end up actually laughing outright. "It's something about you and me. If you want to know more, then stop by my room tonight at eight. I'm counting on you." She finishes in a cheery tone and starts to walk away towards her own seat. I just chuckle at the interaction as Herve shoots his usual annoyed glare at Ulrich for getting Sissi's attention. Honestly, I don't get what he sees in that girl since she ignores everyone except Ulrich. Although, to my immense displeasure, it seems that she's started to take an interest in _me_ as well. Ugh. But, I digress. After Ulrich and Sissi's "conversation" is done, I turn my attention to the front of the classroom as Ms. Hurtz starts the lesson. I don't really want to be called on for a question that I didn't hear, and I'd rather not get detention either.

* * *

At currently lunch time, me and Jeremy decide to visit the factory again. When we enter the computer room, Jeremie sits down in the chair as I lean against the back of it for support. He starts up the program that allows him to talk to the girl on the computer, and starts a conversation. "Hello? Artificial Intelligence? Can you hear me?" He asks the computer. The same tab as last night pops up with the same pink haired girl.

"Yes. But would you mind calling me something else please?" She asks him. He crosses his right leg over his other one and nods as he closes his eyes.

"Alright. How about…" He trails off, trying to think of a name for the girl. I decide to help him.

"What about Maya?" I ask him. He turns his head to look at me. "I knew a Maya once. Nice girl. Almost like a sister to me." I explain not wanting to think about the possibility that the girl in the video game is actually _her_. So I think of a different name to give her for the moment. Until I have valid proof that "Maya" is who I think she is, I'm not gonna get my hopes up high only to have them crushed when it turns out she isn't. Jeremie turns back to the screen and faces the girl after I tell him about the Maya I knew before.

"How about that name? Maya?" He asks her. She seems to think about it for a minute before smiling and nodding.

"Maya… I like that name." She tells us. "But what I would really like is for you to tell me what I'm doing in this virtual universe." She tells him. He nods his head and starts to tell her about what we've… Well, _he's_ learned. How the virtual environment she's in is called "Lyoko", and how she should looks around for a door to get out of the little area she was in. She nods her head in response, and then the screen goes away as her icon on the same screen starts moving. It moves forwards for a few seconds, before stopping. Maya's voice coming through the speakers a second later. "Jeremie. I don't see anything. I- _~gasp!~_" She cuts herself off as she gasps in surprise. We stare at the screen for a moment as her icon moves forwards even more.

"What? What is it Maya?" I ask her. She's silent for a minute before she responds.

"Jeremie! John! I… This is weird. You _have_ to see this." She tells us.

"We'd love to." Jeremie replies as he leans in towards the screen. "Do you think you could give us a visual?" He asks.

"I can try." She responds. We stare at the screen and wait. A few seconds later, a new tab opens up and shows what looks like a forest. The only thing is that there are no branches on the trees, and thus no leaves. The trunks go up high into the sky, which isn't the usual blue color. Instead, it's a bright yellow. The ground isn't completely filled in either. There are grassy paths that weave all over the place, but in between them there isn't anything that could support Maya. Instead, it's just a drop into what looks like a sea of pixels.

"Woah." Both me and Jeremie say with a wonder at the same time. Then, a new tab opens up on a different screen and the circular "table" in the middle of the room lights up. Suddenly, there's a glowing sphere that starts to hover above it, and in the middle of the large sphere is a smaller orange sphere. Around it, four different looking terrains appear. "Woah." I breathe out in surprise again, moving to walk around the hologram. Jeremie turns towards the sphere and gasps as he notices it.

"Maya. It isn't just a forest out there." He tells her. "There's an entire _world_." He says with surprise and wonder. "I count… Four sectors. Each one looks different, and seems to be a different type of terrain." He tells her. But she doesn't respond to what he tells her. Instead, she says something that surprises us.

"Um… Guys. I'm not all alone here." She tells us. "There are some animals." We look back at the tab that shows what Maya is looking at and see two weird looking creatures on the screen. They have human skull shaped heads, and four mechanical legs that remind me a bit of an insect's. There's also a red lens that's pointing at Maya from between the legs and the head. But what _really_ surprises me is the symbol on the things head. It's the same one that was on the panel of the computer mainframe.

"That's great!" Exclaims Jeremie as he leans towards the monitor. "That means that this virtual world has an entire ecosystem with virtual living creatures! Can you get any closer?" He asks her. But then, the screen shows the creatures red lens suddenly getting brighter. Then, a laser blast similar to the ones from blasters in "Star Wars" shoots out of it. And it's aimed at Maya! The girl in question turns around and starts to run back to the area that she left so that she can avoid the lasers the creatures are shooting at her. It looks like a white tower with black goop at the bottom with grey wires leading into it. There's also this white aura surrounding it.

"Guys! They're attacking me!" She exclaims with fear present in her voice.

"Shit!" I yell out in surprise and fear as I lean towards the monitor, placing a hand on the chair so I don't fall. "Run Aeli- I mean, Maya! Run back to the tower!" I yell at her, almost calling her, _her_. Suddenly, Maya gasps and the screen shows her falling to the ground. A tab pops up with a picture of Maya. It shows a lot of stuff that I don't understand. Except for one thing. A life bar. And that life bar just lowered! Even though it wasn't by much, it still means that she was hurt.

"Maya! Hurry up!" Jeremie yells out as he leans in towards the monitor and puts his hands on the screen. Apparently not noticing my slip up earlier. The girl gets back up again and runs towards the tower, only to be hit by another laser just as she enters. Yet again, her life bar lowers. As she falls into the tower, we can see that the walls are blue and have multiple screens on it. Binary code runs along each of the screens before they drop into a dark abyss below. The floor that Maya is on is like the symbol that we've seen on the panel and the creatures. But we don't pay attention to any of this at the moment. What we pay attention to is that Maya isn't moving.

"Maya!" We exclaim with slight fear. But then I notice the little tab with her life points on it, and that said life points are regenerating on their own. "Woah." I mutter in surprise for the third time in a matter of minutes. "Her… Her life points are regenerating." I tell Jeremie with wonder. He also stares at the card-like tab with wonder as the life bar slowly increases towards the top. I just shake my head as I attempt to make sense of what's happened over the course of the past couple days, before giving up when I realize that I can't.

* * *

After leaving Jeremie to talk with Maya on his own, I made my way back to the academy so that I could meet up with Ulrich. After I met him, I found out that the person who was talking to him during class was a guy named Odd, who was his new roommate. So now, we're all standing in a little alcove near the academy's cafeteria. A girl wearing black pants, a black sweatshirt over a black T-shirt, and black combat boots, along with black hair walks past me to grab something from the vending machine. "So I was thinking." Begins Odd. "You know your girlfriend there? Sissi?" He asks Ulrich. Ulrich turns to him and lowers the soda that he's holding to give the teen a slight glare.

"She's _not_ my girlfriend." He tells Odd with annoyance clear in his voice. The teen just crumples up the plastic cup he had and throws it away. Unfortunately, it happens to land on my head and bounce off into the trash. I grumble in annoyance at Odd while I rub my head at the nonexistent pain.

"Cool!" He exclaims. "So that means she's available." He says as Jeremie walks past us and over to the vending machine. Me and Ulrich just sigh in annoyance at the teen's statement. Odd was… Well… _Odd_. His jokes weren't exactly the best, and he could get annoying after just a couple of minutes. But other than that, he seemed like a pretty cool guy.

"I'm telling you, she's lame." Ulrich tells him before taking a sip of his soda. I decide to do the same and start drinking my Sprite. After a few gulps, I wipe at my mouth and turn to face Odd.

"Not gonna argue with Ulrich here. He's right on this one. And no offence Odd, but you aren't really her type." I say with a slight chuckle. Ulrich joins in with my laughter as Odd just shrugs at my comment.

"Oh yeah, I hear that a lot-" He cuts himself off as Jeremie is suddenly shocked by the vending machine after pressing on one of the buttons. His glasses go flying off his face and onto the ground as he cries out in pain.

"Jeremie!" I yell out in shock. (No pun intended.) Me and Ulrich toss our sodas away and rush to his side as he slides down the front of the machine in a daze from the electricity. Ulrich grabs his glasses and pushes them back onto his face as I kneel by his side and put a hand on his shoulder. "Jeremie? Are you alright buddy?" I ask him. All I get is a low moan in response. "Crap." I mutter. Then turn to Odd. "Would you mind going to tell one of the teachers about this while me and Ulrich bring Jeremie to the infirmary?" I ask him while me and Ulrich drape one of Jeremie's arms over our necks each. Odd nods in response, and then goes running off to tell a teacher like I asked. Me and Ulrich make our way to the infirmary, and place Jeremie down on one of the beds. Ulrich goes to tell the nurse what happened, while I sit down in a chair by Jeremie's side. After a couple of minutes, Ulrich comes back into the room with the nurse.

She does a few tests on Jeremie to make sure he's okay, before nodding her head. "Alright. There's nothing that's too serious. It was just a minor electrical shock and some superficial burns." She tells us. Ulrich scoffs and turns away.

"You wanted some juice. Well it looks like you got some." He says. I snicker at this while Jeremie just smiles.

"Very funny Stern. But thank you all the same. You too John." He thanks us. I give him my traditional mock two fingered salute while Ulrich nods. On his way out the door he turns to face us.

"I'll come and check up on you after my martial arts class tonight." He says as he closes the door. The two of us nod as the door is closed and the nurse turns to look at us.

"Well. Seeing as it isn't too serious Jeremie can rest here for a little while and then he can go." She tells us. We thank her as she walks out of the room. When the door closes, Jeremie turns to look at me.

"John? What was that about earlier in the factory?" He asks. I sigh in acceptance before turning to look at him.

"You're talking about earlier in the computer room, right? When Maya was running away from those creatures?" I ask him. He nods his head in response. Alright, so he _did_ notice my little slip up. _Great_, guess there's no use trying to hide it now. "Well, earlier in my life, back when I was a kid, I was in the care of a foster family. Something happened to my own parents and I was made an orphan. Not really sure what happened though. But anyways, I was taken in by the Hopper family. They were the best." I tell him with a reminiscent smile on my face. "Franz Hopper was the father. He lived there with his daughter, Aelita, and me. He would constantly play "twinkle-twinkle little star" on the piano. Aelita loved that song, even if she was thirteen. It was probably just because it was her father playing it, but still. And whenever he wasn't at the piano, he would be up in his room. He would have his door locked and the only person allowed in and out was him." I tell Jeremie. He nods his head, and then looks at me with confusion.

"But what does this have to do with Maya?" He asks.

"I was getting to that." I reply with a sigh. "As I was saying, I lived there with Franz Hopper and his daughter Aelita. Aelita had pink hair, and was always the person you could count on to bring smiles to all those around her. The reason for that little outburst in the computer room earlier was because… Well it's because Maya looks exactly like Aelita." I tell Jeremie. He recoils at that with wide eyes, but lets me continue. "The Hopper's ended up disappearing about ten years ago. When Aelita was fourteen and I was just five. When they disappeared, these men in black suits came to the house we were living at and brought me to an orphanage." I tell him.

"These guys are with me whenever I swap out of orphanages. The last time I saw them was when they swapped me out of my last one to the family that I'm now a part of. The only thing is that they want a son, nothing else. Probably so that they can say they have one, and go to fancy parties that require one, but they don't want to be anywhere near me. But, I'm not gonna question it if it gets me out of an orphanage." I say with a shrug, before glancing at Jeremie and see him looking at me in confusion. "Right. Kinda got a little off topic there didn't I? Well anyway, I just don't know what to think about Maya in all this. Could it be that she _is_ Aelita? And that she's been "uploaded" into Lyoko? But then how is that? And why?" I ask out loud. Not really caring if Jeremie is listening in on this anymore or not. But I do care after he says something that grabs my attention.

"Well, as for why? I don't really know. But I think I can answer the "how" question." He tells me. I whip my head up to look at him so fast that I think I might have given myself whiplash. "While you were with Ulrich, I looked around to see what I could find. On the floor between the computer room, and the mainframe room, there's a scanner room. There are three scanners in there that scans you all the way down to your atoms, and then uploads your atoms into Lyoko in a digital incarnation." He tells me. I stare at him with my mouth gaping.

"So then it's possible that…" I trail off and don't finish the sentence. So Jeremie does for me.

"Yes. It's possible that Maya, or Aelita, was digitalized into Lyoko." He tells me. I feel myself starting to tear up. And wipe at my eyes.

"No." I mumble. "I can't let myself get my hopes up. If it isn't her then all that'll happen to me is more heartbreak." I mutter to myself. I wouldn't let myself believe that it was really Aelita. Not until I had some valid proof. Which it didn't look like I would be getting any due to Maya not having any memories before being "woken up" by me and Jeremie.

* * *

We return to our room from the infirmary and I close the door behind us. Jeremie walks over to his computer and starts to type away, while I sit down on my bed and open up the newest book to a series that I've started reading lately. It was about this zombie apocalypse that took place in Europe. Yeah, turns out I have a thing for the apocalypse. I actually think that it's possible and what-not. You can tell just by visiting my apartment. But more on that another time. Anyways, we relax in our room for about half an hour before I hear yelling in Ulrich's room a few doors over. I sigh, knowing that Odd must have done something to upset him. But then, almost a minute later, something strange happens to Jeremie's computer. Suddenly, it starts to fizzle, and the same symbol from the creatures on Lyoko appears on his screen.

"What the? What's going on?" Jeremie asks in confusion, before he notices the symbol. "Hey, I've seen that logo somewhere before…" He trails off. Then, the same symbol appears in the lens of one of his robots and it starts driving towards him. Suddenly, it slams into him and knocks him to the ground. I jump out of the bed, book completely forgotten at the sight of my friend's robot attacking him, and run over to help him. I help him to his feet, but more of his robots attack us not seconds later. They drive all over the place, shocking our ankles, feet, and sometimes driving up our legs and torsos to shock our shoulders.

"Gah! Jeez Jeremie! Why the hell are your robots attacking us?!" I yell out in anger and pain, throwing a few of the robots away. Only for them to drive back over to us and start shocking us again.

"Gah! How should I know?! Gaaaahhh!" Jeremie yells out as one of them shocks him again. Suddenly, the door slams open to show Ulrich standing there. He takes in the scene for a moment, before rushing over to help throw away the robots. A few of them shift their attacks to him and shock his ankles.

"Hey!" He yells out. He lifts his leg, and then kicks one of the robots away. As soon as the robot slams into the ground, the symbol disappears from Jeremie's screen and the robots stop moving. Ulrich looks at the robots for a minute, before looking up at us. "Your little friends are kinda aggressive. Maybe you should check their circuits or something." He says as I pick up the chair that Jeremie was knocked out of.

"This had nothing to do with me." Jeremie responds. "They just attacked me and John all of a sudden." He says. Ulrich reaches up and scratches the back of his neck.

"You lost me. Would you mind explaining?" he asks. Jeremie and I share a look, before we turn away and look at his screen.

"Nah. Forget it." I tell him, waving my hand at him.

"Oh come on. What if you two are suddenly attacked by… Hair dryers and I'm not around?" He asks. I turn around and face him.

"Well then we'll look more stylish than you. Although I could do without the attention that I would get from Sissi because of it." I say with a chuckle. Ulrich chuckles with me, but then walks over to the chair and sits down with a confident smirk.

"Well I'm not leaving this room until I know what's up." He says. Jeremie and I share another look at his declaration, before I shrug.

"What the hell? We've got nothing to lose and even _we_ don't really know what's going on." I say with a sigh. Jeremie nods in agreement.

"Yeah. It's all just so crazy." He continues with his own sigh. A few seconds pass, then he walks over to the door and closes it. "First tell us this. Can you keep a secret?" He asks Ulrich, raising an eyebrow.

* * *

"That tunnel in the gym is a great way to beat curfew." Ulrich comments as we make our way across the bridge towards the factory.

"Tell me about it." I say with a smirk. "Jeremie actually found another one on the campus as well in the forest." I tell him as we walk up to the ropes that lead down to the factory floor. After we slide down, I look up to see Ulrich just standing there. "What's the matter Ulrich?! Scared of heights?!" I yell up to him.

"Uh, no." He replies, before gritting his teeth and sliding down the rope with his eyes squeezed shut. I chuckle about that all the way to the elevator, until he punches me in the shoulder as it begins to descend. I grumble as I rub the sore spot, Ulrich having a smug look on his face as he watches me. Then, the doors open up and we walk into the computer room. "So that's the mega-computer you guys started up?" Ulrich asks as Jeremie turns on the computer.

"It's actually a super-computer. It's _ultra_-powerful. And while I was studying it, I found out it runs a virtual universe called "Lyoko"." Jeremie tells Ulrich.

"You know what Belpois, this morning's electrical shock fried your brain. This thing's just the control center of the factory, that's all." Ulrich says, scratching his forehead before crossing his hands behind his back.

"Oh yeah?" I ask with a confident smirk as Jeremie types away at the computer.

"Well then explain her. What would you call her? A program for spray-painting doors?" Jeremie says as he gestures to the computer. A tab now open, showing Maya.

"Hello Jeremie, John." Maya greets us.

"Yo." I reply with my mock salute, leaning against the holographic projector with Jeremie.

"Who's the girl with the pink hair?" Ulrich asks us.

"That's Maya. She's… A form of Artificial Intelligence on Lyoko." I tell him, pausing before I accidentally tell him "She's my sister that somehow got transferred into the virtual universe". Making me sound crazier than I already do.

"We're not really sure what she's there for yet-" Ulrich cuts Jeremie off before he can go any further.

"Don't mess with me. You programed her didn't you Belpois? And you're going along with it, aren't you John?" Ulrich asks the two of us, only for Maya to speak up.

"No." She tells him, making his head whip over to look at her. "I woke up as soon as the two of them started up the super-computer. I don't know who I am. My memory has been erased." She continues.

"Maya has to stay in some kind of tower. If she leaves, she gets attacked by some kind of monster. You have to believe us Stern, this is an incredible discovery!" Jeremie exclaims.

"Alright, let's say it is." Ulrich says, walking over and standing next to the swivel chair. "What if… What if it's all just some kind of video game?" Ulrich asks with crossed arms.

"Well then it's a very dangerous game." I tell him with a bit of a frown, crossing my own arms.

"Yeah. My robots are programed to go and fetch a _ball_. And they just tried to _kill_ me and John don't forget. You were there." Jeremie tells him. "What's more, when they started to attack, a sort of logo appeared. The _same_ logo that is on the monsters in Lyoko." He continues as Ulrich sits in the chair and turns it slowly via the controls on the arm rest.

"Heh, this just gets better and better. Do you mean then, that… The thing that's attacking Maya also wants to kill _you guys_?" Ulrich asks us, pointing at the two of us.

"That's what it looks like." I reply with a shrug.

"You know, if that's true John, Belpois, if it's that dangerous. I think you two should shut it down and call the police. Or get the government over here." He tells us. Jeremie and I share another look, the third one this night, before nodding.

"Okay." Jeremie replies. "But first we want to help Maya understand what she's doing on Lyoko." He tells Ulrich, who stares at us in confusion.

"Say what?" He asks.

"We do. And If Jeremie's right. We'll be able to materialize her right here on earth." I tell him with a smirk, pointing at the ground for emphasis.

"Oh that's rich. What makes you think you can do that?" Ulrich asks, spinning the chair around yet again.

"You'll see Stern." Jeremie replies.

* * *

I walk around the scanner room as Jeremie talks to Ulrich and describes the scanning process to him. "In English please." Ulrich asks after Jeremie tries to explain it _his_ way.

"You go inside the scanner. You're teleported to the virtual world." I say, simplifying it for Ulrich, who taps the scanners in question before responding.

"Guys, these things don't exist yet." He says, before leaning against said scanner. "There's no way." He continues, shaking his head.

"You still don't want to believe us." Jeremie says, his voice echoing from inside the scanner.

"I would love to. But virtualization is straight out of science fiction." Ulrich says, before looking at Jeremie as he sits down in the scanner. Jeremie thinks about it for a minute, before responding.

"Why don't we try it out then? Virtualize something into Lyoko. But we're gonna need a guinea pig." Jeremie says as he stands up and places a hand on his chin. Ulrich and I think about it for a minute, before Ulrich seems to think about something.

"A guinea pig? No problem." He replies. I don't like the look in his eyes when he says that.

_Why do I think it has something to do with what happened earlier when he was yelling at Odd?_ I think to myself with a sweatdrop.

* * *

"Oh God." I mutter with my head in my hands. Ulrich had just placed Odd's dog, Kiwi, which apparently Odd brought into _school_, into the scanner, and we were about to virtualize it. I only say "it" because I don't know its gender. I'll ask Odd if everything goes well in the end.

"Right. We're all set and I'm setting up the procedure." Jeremie tells us. "Transfer, Guinea Pig. Scanner, Guinea Pig. W-wait, what?" Jeremie asks as a CGI image starts to load up. But it's not in the shape of Kiwi. Oh no, it's,

"That's no dog. That's Odd Delerobia!" Ulrich exclaims, having just climbed up the ladder to stand next to us.

_Oh great. Only us._ I think to myself as I put my head into my hands and groan in annoyance.

"I-I don't know how to stop the procedure!" Jeremie exclaims, grabbing onto his hair in panic. Then we hear a scream.

"Heeeellpppp!" We hear from the scanner room below.

"Oh man." Ulrich mutters as he climbs down the ladder.

"Of _course_ Sissi and Odd follow Ulrich here. Cause life wouldn't have it any other way. Would it?" I ask while rolling my eyes. I continue to think about how life just_ loves_ to screw with us as Jeremie starts talking to Odd. I'm broken out of my musing as Sissi starts talking to Jeremie. Or rather, interrogating.

"Who's this _Maya_? And what's _that thing_?" Sissi asks, talking about the computer.

"It's the mainframe to a super-computer." Jeremie replies, before the same symbol that's been popping up all over the place appears on said super-computer.

"Woah!" I yell out in alarm as Kiwi begins barking at the sparking wires that rip out of the ground of their own free will. Sissi promptly runs towards the elevator with Kiwi, while Jeremie and I stay by the computer. The wires aim for our position, before shooting towards us. We promptly hide behind the chair and stay there as the wires hit into it. _Great. _More_ electrical attacks by whatever this thing is._ I think to myself as more electricity zaps the chair, Sissi yelling at Kiwi to "Sic it", Kiwi decides that it likes living and decides to bark at the wires instead of actually attacking them.

"Gah!" I yell out as one of the wires gets past the chair and knocks me and Jeremie back. Jeremie grabs a piece of metal, and holds onto it as the wire wraps around him. I think he'll use it as a weapon, but instead he tries to use it as a shield when one of the wires attacks him. Thus getting him electrocuted in the process. Me? I grab onto the wire that tries to attack me with both hands, holding it back successfully while I grit my teeth at the strain. At least, until another wire comes up from my side and zaps my waist. At that point, I pass out from the pain.

* * *

"Maya. Are you there?" I hear Jeremie ask as I start to wake up from my unconscious state.

"Yes. Is everything okay on your side?" Maya responds.

"Well, we're a little shaken up. But it could have been worse." Jeremie replies. At his response, I groan, sit up from my place on the ground, and rub my head.

"Speak for yourself Jeremie. I feel like I got struck by lightning… Which isn't that far from the truth." I tell them, getting help from Ulrich to stand up, and walk over to the chair to stand with the group. We spend a couple hours going over what happened, in which time I learned the Kiwi's a boy, before going back to the academy to sleep. Of course I occasionally twitch from the electrical shock I got, but nothing to serious. I can only hope things wouldn't get any worse than they were now.

* * *

**Author's Note Part 2: Alright, so this story has actually been on my computer for a while now, and I only just got the inspiration to finish writing it. It took a while for me to think about ****_how_**** I wanted to write it out, and all the extra stories that I'm writing at the time didn't help either.**

**(Update Jan. 10****th****, 2015:**

**Alright, so like I've been saying, I'm going back through my stories and updating them all. This is just one of them. Now, you may notice that when I'm updating this one, only two chapters are out at the moment. This is because I'm editing all the others at the moment, and for some reason, it doesn't show that I've updated the story if all I do is "replace" a chapter. So, I've replaced this one with the edited version, and re-uploaded the second one. For all the others, I'll re-upload the chapters as I finish editing them, and then hopefully get to work on writing a new chapter. After that, I'll most likely start on another one of my stories to update. So, just hang in there for the future chapters!)**


	2. Chapter 2: Prologue plus one (Part 2)

**Chapter 2: Prologue Plus One (Part 2)**

* * *

**Author's Note Part 1: Hey guys, here's the second edited chapter of this story, and I should hopefully be able to get out at least one more tonight. However, no promises. **

* * *

**John POV**

* * *

Jeremie and I are currently in our room talking with Maya. "Unfortunately, you're not like Odd or Ulrich. You can't be de-virtualized if you lose all your life points." Jeremie tells her, referencing how Odd and Ulrich had gone into Lyoko the night before, and when they had been "killed" by the monsters there, they'd been kicked back into the real world.

"That's too bad. But at least now I know how to change sectors." Maya replies. I stare in surprise at the way they're talking about this.

_Too bad? Too bad?! From the way you're explaining it Jeremie, it sounds like if she loses all her life points, she loses her _life_!_ I think to myself, but before I can voice anything, Jeremie continues.

"Yes. And I've found out what the towers are for. They're "portals" between the real world, and the virtual world. And when they're red, it means they're _activated_." Jeremie explains.

"Are you sure?" Maya and I ask at the same time, and then share a glance before chuckling at the situation. Though for me, it's a bit less joyful since I still feel a bit of pain when I look at her.

"Just about." He replies. "And they just might be a way to materialize you on earth." He tells her, gaining a gasp in surprise. "I know right? I can't _wait_ to tell the others." I just stand there with a large smile on my face at how this is turning out, though I still think about how they're completely blowing off the fact that it's possible for Maya to _die_. "Well, I guess I'll go do that now." He tells her. She nods in response, before Jeremie turns off his computer. "Shall we?" He asks, turning around in his swivel chair. I nod, and we make our way out of the room, and towards the cafeteria. Seeing as it's time for breakfast, the rest of our small group from the night before would most likely be there.

"So you actually think that you can materialize Maya here by getting her to a red tower?" I finally ask Jeremie as we walk out of the dorms building, gaining a shrug in response.

"It's the best idea I have right now. And it makes sense as well." He tells me. I nod in response as we walk into the cafeteria. We make our way over to the table that we see Ulrich, Odd and, ugh, _Sissi_ sitting at.

"Hey guys. Mind if we talk for a minute?" I ask them.

"Sure. What about?" Odd asks after swallowing his third banana by the look of banana skins littered on his tray.

"It's about you-know-who and you-know-where." I reply, motioning that we should exit the crowded room and head towards a bench that was situated outside said room in the courtyard of the school, away from listening ears. The trio nods, before getting up, throwing away their trash, and following us outside to the bench I motioned towards. Jeremie explains the situation to the others, and needless to say, they're surprised by what he's suggesting.

"So, you want us to go _back_ into Lyoko to get Maya into a red tower?" Ulrich asks. I nod as Jeremie explains in greater detail.

"Like I said, I'm sure that's the only way to get her into the real world. Pretty wild huh?" He asks them.

"Pretty _dangerous_ you mean. We could have all been wiped out for good last night." Odd argues, referencing to the living wire that knocked me out, and would have killed Ulrich and Jeremie, had Odd not used the same metal plate that Jeremie used as a shield to cut said wire in half. The others had explained what happened after I passed out to me when I woke up.

"Odd's right, we would be better off just shutting down the super-computer. Too bad for Maya since she'll still be stuck in there, but still, it's not like she's human." He tells us. I freeze up when he says this, as Jeremie tries to talk to them about it.

"But, she's still-" He's cut off as I place a hand on his shoulder, and then turn to look at Ulrich with a stern glare… No pun intended.

"You know Ulrich. I have a question for you." I ask in a quiet voice, getting the trio's attention. "How would you feel if you were in Maya's position? Hm? So what if she's not human. She's still a "living" being. She has emotions like we do, and a sort of "life", because she can actually _die_ in Lyoko unlike us. So I ask you again. How would you feel if your roles were reversed?" I ask him. At this, none of them have an answer to my question. And Ulrich seems to have a guilty look on his face.

"Ehem." Jeremie coughs into his hand, breaking the awkward silence that followed. "All I'm asking you to do is go back there one more time. Then we can free Maya, and shut down the super-computer for good." Jeremie tells them. Only for Odd to argue yet again, despite what I'd said a minute ago.

"But we can't even get past the monsters. We'll probably get ourselves blown away in a heartbeat." Odd tells him.

"If only there were at least three of us. But Sissi's too scared." Ulrich tells us.

"What? No I'm not. I really _do_ want to go to Lyoko with you guys but when cheerleading practice is _over_." She tells us, and then I put my hands over my heart in a fake hurt manner.

"Ulrich. How could you forget about me?" I ask him in mock hurt, before falling onto my back, grabbing a nearby flower, and holding it to my chest in both hands, acting as if I were dead. Odd bursts out laughing, falling off the bench and clutching his stomach, as everyone else but Sissi chuckles at my antics. She instead just wrinkles her nose at my act. The awkwardness from the asked question disappearing.

"Thanks Sissi, John. So here's the scoop. As soon as Maya's materialized into the real world, I give you my word that we can shut down the super-computer. Meanwhile, we have to keep this a secret." Jeremie tells us.

"Promise." Ulrich says, raising a hand.

"I swear." Odd puts in.

"Eh, I don't really have anyone else to tell anyways." I say with a shrug as I jump to my feet in a matter of seconds. Don't ask me why, but for some reason anime logic seems to apply to those around me, including myself.

"Ditto." Sissi says. Before placing a hand on Ulrich's shoulder. "I can't _wait_ to see what I look like in Lyoko." She says, as Ulrich just slightly glares at nothing in particular from her unending flirtation. I feel bad for him in that regard… I really do.

"Me too." Odd agrees, raising his hand. "With any luck, I won't be the dumbest looking one in the group." Odd says, earning a chuckle from us, and a slight glare from Sissi, before Ulrich gets off of the bench and starts walking away.

"Ulrich, where are you going?" Sissi asks him. "Don't you want to come see my cheerleading routine?" She asks.

"Nah, I've got something important to take care of." He tells us, continuing to walk away. Sissi gives off an annoyed huff, while the rest of us just shrug our shoulders. Then, we break off and go off. Sissi going to her practice, and Jeremie, Odd and I going to work on our homework.

* * *

"It's true that at first I thought Sissi was a babe, but the more I get to know her, the more I realize she's more of a… How can I put this tactfully?" Odd asks us as we walk down one of the many paths on campus.

"Diva?" I offer.

"Turkey?" Jeremie replies. I laugh at this as Odd nods.

"Exactly." He replies, before laughing along with me. Jeremie joins in as we walk into the library building, before we walk into the actual library and have to quiet down. We sit down at one of the tables, and Jeremie and I pull out our respective laptops. Odd pulls out some headphones and listens to music, Jeremie works on whatever, and I boot up COD WaW seeing as I'd already finished my homework. After about half an hour passes, Jeremie starts talking. During this time, I'd been playing one of the many custom zombie maps on solo, and only pause it when he starts talking.

"Aha. Got it." He says, typing in a final line of… Whatever he was typing. "Last night, I dug up a new program on the super computer called "Return to the past" and I just figured out how to activate it." He tells us. Ah, so _that's _what he was working on. Odd just nods in response, before looking up from the homework that he'd started working on five minutes beforehand.

"That's great Einstein, but do you think you could give me a hint on my electrochemistry report?" He asks.

"Hey Odd, are you planning on calling me Einstein forever?" Jeremie asks, looking at the other blond haired boy in question out of the corner of his eyes.

"Eh, why not?" He asks. "So, what about my report?" He prompts.

"I've gotta admit. The nickname definitely fits you, Einstein." I tell Jeremie with a smirk. He gives me a slight glare, before turning and giving Odd an answer. In his way. And by that, I mean he completely confused the hell out of me, and probably Odd, with how he explains it in an… Einstein, sort of way. Before Jeremie can confuse us any further by giving Odd examples, two boys walk by talking about… Sissi?

"So yeah, Jim ended up taking Sissi to the infirmary." One tells the other.

"What'd she do? Pull a muscle in her brain trying to add two plus two?" The other asks, and if Sissi wasn't actually in the infirmary, I probably would have busted out laughing at that.

"Nah man, I heard she got _electrocuted_." The first one replies. Me and Odd share a look, before turning to look at Jeremie.

"I'm sensing a trend here." I tell them, getting nods in response. We quickly pack up our things, before rushing off to the infirmary. When we arrive, Nicholas is explaining to the principle, also known as Sissi's father, that Sissi was attacked by "an electricity monster that jumped from her coat hanger". At this, the three of us share another look, before rushing off towards the entrance to the sewers that Jeremie found in the forest. On the way, I dial Ulrich. I hear it ring a couple times before he picks up.

"John?" he asks.

"Ulrich. Great, we kinda need you right now. Something attacked Sissi and according to eyewitnesses, it was some kind of-" I'm cut off by Ulrich.

"Electric thing?" He asks, I stumble a bit on nothing when he says this, before finding my footing and catch up to the other two.

"Ah great. Don't tell me the thing went after _you_." I say in exasperation through the phone.

"Yeah, it just did in the gymnasium. This is getting crazier by the minute. You and your guy's stupid super-computer." He says in an annoyed and slightly panicked voice. Not that I can blame him.

"That's all the more reason to hurry up and materialize Maya here on Earth so that we can shut it down for good. Hurry up and meet us at the factory so that we can get her to the red tower." I tell him. "If it works, we can shut it down for good tonight, and not have to worry about it anymore." I say as the three of us finally arrive at the manhole cover. "We'll meet you in the sewer, or the factory. Whichever one we end up at first." I tell him, before cutting the connection, and following after Odd and Jeremie, closing the manhole cover behind me so that no one knows about where we are. When we reach the pathway next to the sewage stream, we start running in the direction of the factory. And coincidentally, the entrance from the gymnasium happens to be on the way, which we reach at the same time Ulrich jumps out. Along with someone else. This someone happens to be the same girl that I'd seen the day before, right before Jeremie got electrocuted by the vending machine.

"Hey, who's the girl?" Jeremie asks, to which I'm wondering the same thing. Though I probably wouldn't have phrased it like that, since it sounded a little rude the way it came out.

"This is Yumi. She was there when I was attacked and she can fight so I figured-" He's cut off by Jeremie.

"Okay, okay. Explain later. Right now, we need to get to the factory." Jeremie says, before everyone takes off. Leaving Yumi and me behind. I turn to face her.

"Nice to meet you. By the end of this, I'd probably say that you'll be added to our little band of misfits. So welcome aboard." I tell her, before running off after the others, Yumi following shortly thereafter. Soon, we've reached the factory and Jeremie and Odd swing down the ropes to ground level. Leaving Yumi, me, and Ulrich up at the top.

"Don't tell me you're scared." Yumi teases. Ulrich responds with a slight glare, while I shrug my shoulders.

"Nope. There are just two ropes." I reply with a small smirk, before leaping towards the one Jeremie used as it swings back towards us. At the same time, Yumi leaps towards the one Odd used. When everyone makes it to the elevator, Jeremie activates it and we descend. The elevator reaches the computer room, and Yumi turns to us.

"So who's the Maya?" She asks. Since Ulrich told us she was with him when he was attacked, I guess she was there when I called him as well, meaning that she heard our little conversation over the phone. Jeremie turns to her with a slight smile.

"You're about to meet her." He replies. "Go downstairs to the scanner room and get ready for the big plunge." Jeremie tells us as he walks to the main computer when the door opens.

"Big plunge? But I don't have a bathing suit." Yumi tells us.

"Don't worry, you won't be needing one." Odd replies. I facepalm at the double meaning that his sentence could have, before turning to Yumi and explaining the situation to her as we descend so that she doesn't take it the wrong way. Odd and Ulrich explaining some of their adventure in Lyoko to her as the doors open and we walk into the scanner room. When we finish our story, she looks around at the scanners before turning back to the three of us.

"This story of yours is pure science fiction." She tells us, to which I roll my eyes.

"And Ulrich said the same thing. Until he went into Lyoko that is." I respond, gesturing to the scanners for emphasis. She just glares slightly at me, and I throw up my hands in mock surrender. "Alright, alright. Don't believe me. But you're missing out." I tell her in a sing-song voice as Ulrich and Odd make their way to the scanners.

"Can you guys hear me? I'm starting up the procedure." Jeremie tells them. "Transfer: Odd. Transfer: Ulrich." Jeremie begins, Ulrich grinning as he looks at Yumi as the doors to the scanner close.

"Don't tell me you're scared." He teases, using the same words she'd said earlier to him.

"Oh, he got you there." I tell her with my own smirk. She sends a slight glare at me, before turning around and getting into the scanner behind us.

"Wait, I'm coming too." She announces. Jeremie is slightly surprised by this.

"O-okay. Transfer: Yumi. Scanner: Yumi. Scanner: Odd. Scanner: Ulrich. Virtualization!" A few seconds after he says that, the scanners open again, and I step into the one Ulrich used.

"Alright Jeremie, my turn." I announce.

"Okay. Transfer: John. Scanner: John. Virtualization!" I hear Jeremie announce as the scanner powers up, I feel wind blowing from underneath me, and then the feeling of being stretched between two points far apart hits. The next thing I know is blackness.

* * *

"Huh?" I ask when I'm hit by sudden light. Then, I feel the sensation of gravity pulling me down. Because of my parkour training around town, I sub-consciously move so that my feet will hit the ground first. They do, and I lessen the shockwaves by rolling into a kneeling position. But when I do, I feel something shift on my back.

"No fair. How come John doesn't fall onto his back the first time he gets here like the rest of us?" I hear Odd ask. "And why is it that he has the coolest outfit?! Great. I'm _still_ the only one that looks like a nitwit on Lyoko." I get up, and notice Odd and Ulrich standing in front of me. But Odd looks like a big purple cat, and Ulrich is wearing some kind of samurai outfit. Then I realize that these were their Lyoko outfits. I look around, and see Yumi. But she's completely different. Now on Lyoko, she was garbed in a Japanese outfit. Although I feel my face heat up a bit when I see her, I want to know what _I_ look like on Lyoko. So I look down, and freeze at my outfit.

Instead of a samurai, cat, dog, ninja, or some kind of Japanese outfit, instead it was pretty modern. For footwear, I was wearing black combat boots that went up to my mid-calf area, and covered part of the dark blue jeans I was wearing. Looped around the jeans was a black belt with a silver buckle on the front that had a skull symbol. I had on a red T-shirt that read "Keep Calm and Kill Zombies" with a chainsaw with a skull and cross-bones above the words, and on top of it was a black leather jacket. This was just like how I imagined myself if I were to be in a zombie apocalypse. Guess Jeremie was right, the computer _does_ read into your subconscious for your outfit. Across my chest from my left shoulder down to the right of my waist was a black strap. But before I can check just _what_ is strapped onto me, Yumi speaks up. "Um, mind telling me where we are?" She asks us. I dust the imaginary dust off my shoulders from rolling before I turn to look at her.

"The Virtual World. Welcome to Lyoko, population: us." I respond with a smile. Then Jeremie's voice sounds from everywhere at once.

"Move it. Maya needs you. She's in danger." He tells us. Ulrich and Odd turn around, and start to run off.

"Alright, here we go!" Odd calls out, leaving me and Yumi behind. Again. I just sigh at this, before turning back to Yumi and fighting down the red that I'm _sure_ is present in my cheeks when I see again just how she looks.

"Come on. They probably won't wait for us anyways." I tell her, turning and running after them with Yumi following a few seconds later. As we run after the duo, I look slightly over my shoulder, trying to see what's strapped onto my back. But I can't get a good look at it. _Oh well. Guess I'll just have to wait until we reach Maya to be able to tell what it is._ I think to myself. Soon after, me and Yumi catch up with the other two, just in time to see Ulrich has destroyed one of the monsters, and Odd is trying to flirt with Maya. _Yeah._ _Like _that's_ gonna work._ I think to myself as I mentally roll my eyes. Yumi catches up, and looks around.

"Hey, I don't have a weapon." She tells us. Before something sticks out of the yellow kimono wrapped around her waist. When she unfolds it, it's shown to be, "A fan? That's all?" She asks in confusion. She may be confused, but my mind goes to the pictures and videos I've seen where Japanese women used fans with sharp edges to cut through _bone_. The main person I think of? Kitana from Mortal Kombat.

"Try throwing it. You never know." Odd suggests, possibly having the same thought process as me. Yumi follows his suggestion, and jumps into the air before throwing the fan at one of the monsters.

"Hi~~~ya!" She yells out as she throws it, the fan letting of a sound like a chainsaw, and succeeds in destroying not one, but the remaining two monsters before she catches the fan as it acts like a boomerang and returns to her hand.

"Not bad." I compliment with a smirk.

"Wow, I think I'll keep it." She tells us, walking over to join the small group as I walk with her.

"Nice work." Jeremie's voice echoes through the world. "Now bring Maya to the red tower so we can materialize her." We nod to each other, before taking off in the direction of said tower. As we run, Odd looks over at me.

"So John, how does it feel to have a sniper rifle strapped across your back?" He asks. At that, I falter in running, before running regularly again.

"You're telling me I have a freaking _sniper_ as my weapon?" I ask in confusion, as well as excitement. In response, Odd nods. "Ye-he-hes!" I exclaim with a large grin, jumping into the air with a fist pump before I land and continue running. But before we can get any further into the conversation, Jeremie's voice echoes through Lyoko again.

"Hey Odd. I think I have a nice life size example for your electrochemistry report." He tells the blond haired teen running next to me.

"Oh yeah? What?" Odd asks. Although I have a _pretty_ good guess as to what Jeremie's hinting at.

"A nice electricity monster." He tells us, proving my thought process correct. "Where are you guys?" He asks us.

_A~~~nd I was right. Great._ I think to myself sarcastically. "We're nearing the red tower Jeremie. We should be there within a couple minutes." I tell him.

"Well hurry up then. Things are about to start jumping over here." He tells us. Seeing as the electricity monster seems to be going after our small group members, I would have to guess that it's at the factory looking for us. After a minute, we hear Jeremie speak up again. "Watch it guys. There are some more monsters coming your way." He warns us. Sure enough, two _giant_ four legged crabs come out from behind two of the ice glaciers on either side of our group, and start towards us. We all stop running, but Odd stops a little later than the rest of us.

"Great, crabs. Who's got the tartar sauce?" He quips as he rubs his stomach, before turning around with the rest of us and running away. Odd and Ulrich break away from the group a few seconds later, and try to flank the crabs. Only for said crabs to turn their attention to them and try to attack. While this is going on, Yumi and I each try to help them as Maya hides behind a different ice glacier. Yumi goes off to help Odd, who's climbed up a glacier and is shooting his arrows at his crab, while I go off to try and help Ulrich. I see Ulrich manage to deflect a laser blast with his sword, almost like it was a lightsaber in Star Wars, before he turns around and starts running again. I run to his side and glance back at the giant crab.

"So, need a lift?" I ask, to which Ulrich nods. He goes running ahead slightly while I slide along the ground, holding my sniper in my hands in front of my chest so that it doesn't drag along the ground. Then he turns around, leaps off the ground, and uses my feet as a springboard to leap on top of the crab, and slam his sword down through the top of it where I assume the symbol is, seeing as hitting the monsters there seems to be the only way to "kill" them. Off to the side, I notice Yumi try to throw her fan at the crab that's chasing after her, taking the time to also notice that Odd's no longer with us, before she's shot in the leg and falls to the ground.

"Yumi!" I exclaim, before rushing the crab with Ulrich, since he's already taken care of his. Ulrich tries to jump on top of it, but the crab just throws him off to the side. While this is happening, I take Yumi and help her to her feet. Hoping that Ulrich had managed to distract the thing. When I look over, I notice that Ulrich isn't there, and Maya is kneeling on the ground as if she were praying. The crab standing in front of her with its laser primed. "Maya!" I yell out in fear, thinking that she was about to get shot. Then I hear music, and a wall begins to grow out of the ice in front of her. Blocking the crab's lasers from reaching her when it fires. Yumi and I run over to check on her.

"Did you do this?" Yumi asks in surprise, gesturing to the wall.

"Yes, I think so." Maya replies, obviously just as surprised as us. But I manage to shake it off and get back to the task at hand.

"While this is all quite fascinating, you need to get to the tower. Hurry!" I tell her, pointing at the tower in question.

"Okay." She replies with a nod, before she goes running off in the direction of said tower, the giant crab not noticing her disappearance as if the wall were one sided, as it continues to try and blast through to us. Then, Yumi starts to talk to Jeremie.

"Jeremie. It's okay. Maya is-"

"Look out!" I exclaim as I notice the giant crack in the ice wall, cutting Yumi off as I push her to the side just as the crab finally manages to break apart said ice wall. Succeeding in de-virtualizing me with the shrapnel created.

* * *

As I open my eyes, I let out a groan of pain and notice Ulrich and Odd standing in front of the scanner looking down at me. "Remind me to try harder not to get de-virtualized." I groan out as they help me to my feet. The pain slowly going away.

"So how'd you get de-virtualized?" Odd asks.

"I got blown up when the last crab finally managed to shoot through an ice wall Maya created to protect herself along with Yumi and me." I reply.

"Well, why isn't Yumi here then?" Odd asks.

"I managed to push her out of the way right before the wall blew up." I tell them, the only pain left being a slight headache.

"So you protected her and not yourself. Hm, I'm sensing something here." Odd tells me in a sing-song voice. My response is to glare at him, before socking him in the shoulder. "Ouch." He yelps in pain. Then I turn to Ulrich, who's giving me a smirk.

"And not a word from you either. It's called being _chivalrous_. You could learn about it Odd." I say, ignoring the blond haired boy's indignant, "Hey!", and pointing an accusing finger at Ulrich, even though I'm _sure_ that I'm blushing, if the heat in my cheeks is anything to go by. The smirk stays on his face as he holds up his hands in an "I surrender" fashion. Then, we climb up the ladder that leads to the computer room… Only to find Sissi is standing there with the principal and Jim.

"Oh Ulrich!" She exclaims, rushing forwards to try and hug him. Only for him to lean away from her.

"I thought you said you wouldn't tell anyone." Ulrich says with annoyance and anger in his voice, while me and Odd just glare at her from behind him, thinking the same thing.

"What? But I came here to _save_ you." She tells him. Before the conversation can get any worse, Jeremie speaks up.

"What about Maya? Is she here?" He asks us. Odd and I look away slightly as Ulrich looks at Jeremie with sad eyes.

"No. Sorry Jeremie, it didn't work. She didn't materialize." Ulrich tells him. Jeremie looks at us sadly, before the principal speaks up.

"Alright that's enough Belpois. I order you to shut this down now. And then you can explain to me exactly what this is about." He tells Jeremie, placing his hands on his waist.

"I think we ought to report this to the authorities right away." Jim tells us, speaking for the first time since me, Ulrich and Odd came up the ladder to see them standing there.

"Me too Jim. It's much too dangerous. Told you so didn't I?" Sissi agrees, much to our annoyance and anger.

"You're nothing but a rotten traitor. You're like a modern, female version of Benedict Arnold." I tell her with narrow eyes.

"Who?" She asks in confusion. I mentally face palm.

_Of course. Why would I think that _Sissi_ of all people would know who Benedict Arnold is? The only thing she cares about is fashion, Ulrich, and popularity._ I think to myself as the principal places a hand on Jeremie's shoulder.

"Let's go Belpois. Kill this thing and follow me immediately." He tells Jeremie.

_We're not even on _campus_. He can't tell us what to- Oh wait, it's still technically school hours. Damn._ I think to myself, realizing that we were now in even deeper shit seeing as we should all technically be at the academy at the moment.

"No." Jeremie responds after a few seconds, before typing away at the computer. I look over my shoulder when I hear a noise, to see Yumi making her way up the ladder behind us.

_Guess the crab claimed another victim._ I think, realizing that the crab was still on Lyoko after I had pushed Yumi out of the way of the wall, and had probably de-virtualized her after Maya made it to the tower.

"What are you doing?" Jim asks in suspicion.

"I'm launching a new program. With a little luck, it'll work." He announces as Yumi makes it up to our level, and stand up. We all look at him in confusion when he says this.

"What kind of program?" Ulrich asks Jeremie just as he finishes typing in whatever program it is.

"Return to the past now!" He exclaims. Everyone looks away as a white beam shoots out of the hologram projector in the middle of the room, before it spreads out to cover us all. My vision going completely white, before all I can see is blackness.

* * *

As the blackness fades away, it's replaced by a familiar scene. I was standing in the little alcove right outside the school, with the vending machine, and Ulrich and Odd are standing across from me. The latter having his hair down like it was before he went into Lyoko. I also notice that Yumi was just grabbing her drink and turned around to face us. "Woah. What happened? What are we doing here?" Ulrich asks as me and Odd scratch our heads in confusion.

"But… We were doing this yesterday. You don't think…" Yumi trails off, right as Jeremie comes walking in. As he places a coin in and presses a button, Odd speaks up. I take the time to notice that this time, Jeremie doesn't get shocked like he did the last time.

"Einstein, you're a genius. Your return to the past? It works." Odd tells Jeremie. Jeremie just stares at the machine.

"What's that? What are you talking about?" Jeremie asks, making us all stare at him in confusion.

"You haven't forgotten about the super-computer? And Lyoko? And my big purple cat costume, have you?" Odd asks him. Jeremie looks at us in surprise.

"You know about Lyoko? But how? John, did you tell them?" Jeremie asks me in confusion. I shake my head as Yumi speaks up.

"That's weird, it seems like the return in time didn't work on him." She says as Ulrich throws away his drink, and starts to lead Jeremie away.

"Come on, we're gonna fill you in." He tells Jeremie, as the rest of the group follows after him. I take a look at my drink, before shrugging, grabbing Jeremie's, and following after them. I'm pretty much getting two Sprites for the price of one because of this. And might as well grab Jeremie's instead of letting it just sit there for someone else. Finally, we get to Jeremie's room, and explain everything that had happened after that point yesterday… Today… Argh! Time travel is so confusing! Let's say we explained everything that got "erased" from everyone else's memories. By the time we've finished, its night time.

"But why wouldn't I remember anything?" Jeremie asks us, sitting in front of his computer, where Maya has been listening in on the conversation.

"Maybe it's because you didn't go to Lyoko." Yumi suggests. Jeremie taps his chin and nods at that.

"Yes, maybe. Well, first thing tomorrow morning, I'm heading to the factory, and scanning myself." He declares. Only for Maya to hold up a hand in protest.

"No Jeremie, we have to shut down the super-computer and you know it." She tells him. "It's too dangerous." Jeremie leans in.

"But, Maya-" He's cut off by said girl.

"Aelita." She tells him with a wink, making me freeze up when I hear the name. "When I went into the tower I… I remembered my name." She tells him with a smile.

"Aelita… that's better than Maya." He says with a glance in my direction." But what about bringing you in? I promised." He turns around to face us, but at this point, I'm just listening in with wide eyes. "Give me one more night to work it out. I'll find a way." He says desperately. The rest of them share a glance, before Ulrich responds.

"Okay."

"Thanks guys." Jeremie says with a grin.

"We'll meet up in the computer lab tomorrow morning to see how you're doing." Ulrich continues with his hands in his pockets, as the others walk away. I follow with them out into the hallway after muttering to Jeremie I was gonna take a walk, not listening for a response as my mind starts going over what I just heard. Until a new voice breaks the silence.

"Ulrich!" I turn my head slightly to see Sissi standing there in a dress just like when she showed up at the factory the first night… Tonight… Forget it… Man, is this how the Doctor feels? That's probably just another thing to add to the long list of things that suck for him. "What are you doing here? I've been waiting for you for an hour. I've never been stood up like this before." She says in annoyance.

"Well there's a first time for everything. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm with my friends." Ulrich tells her as we walk away, me slowly breaking out of my surprise from Aelita's announcement as Sissi yells down the hall after us.

"I have a bad feeling about this girl, Sissi. I have a feeling that she's gonna cause us _a lot_ of grief." Odd tells us. Before we all share a chuckle as mind continues going over what was just said in mine and Jeremie's room, but not with as much shock as before.

_Aelita… But could that mean that you're… I mean, you lost your memories, and _she's_ been gone for ten years… It _could_ be possible. And- No! I won't allow hope to cloud my judgment. It will only bring heartache. Heartache and sorrow if I'm wrong about it. So I _can't_ hope. But…_ I trail off as I steal a small glance at Yumi out of the corner of my eye, my face heating up slightly again. _Does that mean that I can't be happy in a different aspect of my life?_ I ask, debating whether to risk heartache or not for someone else.

* * *

"Hi." Jeremie greets us as we walk into the computer lab the next morning. Myself having not yet decided on the matter I thought of the night before. And it would probably take a while for me to do so.

"Well? Find anything?" Yumi asks Jeremie.

"Yes. Xana." He tells us.

"Xana? What's that?" Odd asks, questioning what was on all our minds. Aelita is the one to answer the question.

"A super dangerous program. Sort of like a virus. It can control electricity, and it activates towers on Lyoko to gain access to your world." She tells us.

"So, the red tower, the electricity monster, the weird symbol, the monsters on Lyoko? All of that was Xana?" I ask in surprise. _Great, just what we need, a freaking electro-kinetic monster that can also create an unlimited army in the virtual world that we need to face… _Wonderful.

"Yes. Only Aelita can counter it by de-activating the towers that it uses for access to the real world." Jeremie tells us.

"That's great." Ulrich says sarcastically. "And what about materializing Aelita?" He asks.

"I could do it, but I need more time." Jeremie tells us, looking down at the keyboard of the computer. "It's dangerous. Xana could attack at any moment." Jeremie tells us, before Aelita speaks up again.

"Be reasonable Jeremie. We better just shut this thing down." Everyone gets sad expressions on their faces, until Ulrich looks up again.

"Listen, now that we know how to neutralize Xana, we just need to get Aelita to the activated tower." He says, Jeremie nodding in agreement.

"We can take care of the attacks while Einstein figures out how to bring Aelita to Earth, right?" Odd asks, before him and Ulrich turn to Yumi and I. In response to their questioning looks, I smile.

"I'm in." I tell them, eager to materialize Aelita here on earth, as well as try out my sniper on Lyoko. Which I only just now realize I didn't take the chance to look at when Ulrich was taking care of the giant ass crab on Lyoko.

"I think we should. We _are_ Lyoko Warriors after all, aren't we?" Yumi asks, to which me, Odd and Ulrich fist bump.

"Yeah!" The three of us exclaim in agreement. Aelita looks on with a smile.

"You really think you can do it?" She asks Jeremie.

"They don't call me Einstein for nothing." He replies with a smirk, finally accepting the nickname we'd given him. "In a few weeks, I'll have it figured out. Meanwhile, let's not forget about our pact, huh?" He asks.

"Hey relax, we all know how to keep a secret." Yumi responds, to which I smirk.

"Yeah, we're not Sissi." I tell him. Everyone laughs at that, our small group ready to take on this new threat, and help Aelita live out her life here on earth.

* * *

**Author's Note Part 2: Alright, so this shall be an OCxYumi fanfiction, with Ulrich being paired with another girl. But she will only be mentioned, and maybe show up one or two times. She will ****_not_**** be a major character, nor will she join in with the group. The reason for this is that I already have one OC I need to take care of, and I don't need more. Also, the reason this is OC x Yumi is because I haven't seen that many, and so mine will be one of the few. Note that because of this, it will change things in the story line. ****_Especially_**** when William comes in. But no spoilers, and if you dislike this, I have a simple solution for you… Don't read it.**

**Anyways, thanks for those of you who stuck with me until this point, and I hope to continue to keep you wanting more. Until next time, thanks for taking the time out of your day to read this!**

**(Updated: Jan. 10****th****, 2015:**

**Alright, so this is the second chapter that I updated, and the first that I've re-uploaded. It's also the last one to be updated today. The third, and possibly more, will be out tomorrow. So, I hope that you all like them, and I look forwards to hearing what you guys think about all this! Thanks for taking the time out of your day to read this, and I'll see you all next time!)**


	3. Chapter 3: Teddyzilla

**Chapter 3: Teddyzilla**

* * *

**Author's Note Part 1: Well, here's the third edited chapter guys. Hope you're liking it so far, and I hope that with future updates I can keep you entertained. Also, this is the first chapter where I plan to change more than just the writing style. Why? Because when I look back at this stuff, I realize just how much I messed up. So, from here on out, the changed in chapters will probably be more obvious for those of you who read it before. But, enough of this, how about I let you guys actually read the chapter?**

* * *

**3****rd**** Person POV**

* * *

The Lyoko crew was currently setting up the different decorations for the prom coming up that night. Only two people in the group would be able to actually go unfortunately, because the prom required a date to attend, and these two were the only ones to have dates. And these two people just _happened_ to be John and Yumi. Three guesses as to just _who_ they were going with and the first two don't count. At the moment, Yumi was setting up decorations, as John held the ladder to make sure it didn't fall. Ulrich and Odd were by the stage, setting up all the sound equipment, and Jeremie… He was back in his room talking with Aelita. As the four of them work, they hear a commotion start out in the hall when Sissi leaves the gymnasium. John takes one look, sighs, and turns back to the rest of the group. "Sissi's mocking Milly again guys." He warns, to which the rest of the group just sighs.

"Do you think she's ever gonna learn that mocking and teasing people won't get her anywhere?" Odd asks the rest of them. Ulrich scoffs.

"_Sissi_? Learn _that_? Please. We'd have better luck getting you to eat one tray of food for dinner Odd." Ulrich replies, setting down a speaker to the side of the stage. Odd thinks about it for a minute.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." He replies with a shrug. John was listening in on all this, and nods his head in agreement. Then, they hear Milly at the door.

"Uh, John? Would you be my date tonight?" She asks, a small tear leaking trailing down her slightly red face. At this, John hates the situation he's put in. So he tries his best to do this the nicest way, while not hurting Milly's feelings, or giving Sissi any "ammunition" as it were, to use against her after he replies.

"Sorry Milly. But, I kinda already promised to go with Yumi tonight." He tells her, blushing along with Yumi and sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck after the teen in question made her way down the ladder, before he turns to look back at Milly. "But, I'm sure that if you asked anyone else, they would be glad to go with you." He tells her with a reassuring smile. At this, Milly turns to look at Ulrich as him and Odd walk over to the other two.

"U-Ulrich?" She asks. Ulrich rubs the back of his neck at this.

"Uh, sorry Milly. But, I don't think it wouldn't be a very good idea. I'm too old for you. And besides, I, kind of already have plans for tonight." He tells her. They hear Sissi laugh off to the side.

"What did I tell you? But don't worry Milly. I'm sure you'll find a boy for the _sandbox_ dance. Meanwhile, why don't you go play with your _dolls_?" The group hears her ask mockingly as Tamiya places a reassuring hand on Milly's shoulder, before said girl goes running of sobbing. Tamiya waits a moment, before rushing out after her.

"Milly! Milly wait!" They hear her exclaim. Sissi just looks on with a self-satisfied smirk. Until she hears another voice that is.

"I hope you're proud of yourself." She turns to find the group of four looking at her with disdain clear on their faces, Jeremie still at the stage, and Yumi being the one to talk to Sissi. The principal's daughter just frowns at them, before turning around with a huff, and walking off with Nicholas and Herve at her heels. John glares daggers into the back of her head, until she turns and leaves his line of sight. Then he turns to Ulrich and…

_~Smack!~_

"Ouch! What was that for John?!" Ulrich exclaims, rubbing the back of his head from the smack that John just gave him. As John lowers the hand he used to smack Ulrich, he sends a scowl at the German teen.

"For how you rejected Milly. Yes, I can understand that she's too young. But, you don't have to _tell_ her that. And especially with Sissi standing next to her _dummkopf_." He tells him, calling the brunette a moron in German. Ulrich flinches slightly and looks at the ground in guilt when he realizes that John's right.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." He admits, before sighing. "I guess we should get back to setting this stuff up, huh?" He asks, heading back into the gymnasium where the prom was going to take place. The others nod, before entering behind him.

* * *

As the group continues to set up for the prom, John can't help the slight frown that stays present on his face. Yumi notices this from her place on the stage. "Don't be so gloomy John. I mean, you could have said yes to her. You know me and, prom." She stated, seeing as depending on the prom, Yumi didn't exactly fit in. Although, John had heard that this prom was supposed to be casual wear. So, Yumi would most likely fit in well. That, and instead of only being a beauty queen like last year, they were making it so that there was a prom queen, and prom _king_. Apparently the school felt that the guys were missing out, so they changed it this year.

_Huh, wonder what she'll decide to wear. Better yet, what am _I_ gonna wear? My usual clothing won't exactly fit in with what other people will. I'd most likely stick out like a sore thumb. Just like Ulrich would. And what about the whole "Prom King and Queen" thing? Is it for couples? Or can you just vote for anyone in general?_ John is broken out of his thoughts as Odd speaks up from the stage.

"Even if _I_ was your date?" He asks, using the mic that he was setting up. At that question, John can't help the feeling that appears in his gut. Oh yeah, there was no denying it. John had feelings for Yumi, he just couldn't work up the courage to tell her. So far, he'd only gotten as far as asking her to the prom. And when Odd had said that… Well, obviously John didn't like _that_ idea. But, Ulrich speaks up from his place next to John, helping him to secure (Read: Tape) the wiring for the speakers to the floor, and successfully distracting the teen from his moment of dislike for his blond peer.

"Sissi _did_ come on a little strong. If meanness is one of the qualities of a beauty queen, she'll get re-elected alright." He tells the rest of the group as Jeremie comes walking in with a box filled with more decorations.

"That's true." He agrees. "But try getting _Ms. World_ to see that." He tells them with a smirk as Odd fixes the mic onto its stand, before leaning it towards himself.

"Ms. World huh? Ms. In-her-own-world more like it." He quips, gaining laughter from the other four as John forgets about his previous statement of going with Yumi to prom. From their place on the ground and stage, the group can see Sissi's face go red in the reflection of the disco ball she was hanging, and hear the small growl she lets out. After their small laughing fit, the group continues to set up decorations, wire the sounding, which John knew how to do _very_ well thanks to his second foster dad, and clean up the gymnasium in general. After a while, the people working in the gym took a break for lunch, while Sissi decided that she'd had enough of work, and decided that she would just quit for the day and worry about getting ready for the prom. The group wasn't very surprised by this seeing as it was _Sissi_. What would else would they expect from "Ms. In-her-own-world", as Odd put it?

Later into lunch, after Odd had scarfed down four bananas, two croissants, three chicken legs, two bowls of mashed potatoes, and so on, the group noticed a small crowd gathering in front of the school building. They shared a look, before cleaning up after themselves and walking over to the side to watch. A minute later, Sissi comes out with her father, a blue bathrobe covering her, while white ointment is spread over her face. "Move along, back to your dorms. Everything is just fine." Her father, the principal, tells the gathered crowd, leading Sissi away. The group looks on, before turning to each other.

"What do you say we take a look, to make sure our old pal Xana isn't behind this?" Odd asks. The rest of the group nods in agreement. Yumi going, "Mm-hm." before they head off. When they reach Sissi's room, Jeremie looks in along with Yumi and Odd as Ulrich and John lean against the wall.

"So what do you think?" Ulrich asks. Jeremie looks at the room for a few more seconds before responding.

"A simple short-circuit. Too many appliances plugged in at the same time." Jeremie tells them.

"Yeah. The high-fi lights, lady shaver, curling iron, all together, what do you _expect_ to happen?" Yumi asks as she turns around and starts to walk away.

"Not to mention the brain stimulator. Although she probably never figured out how to use it." Odd quips as we walks away with Yumi and Ulrich. John and Jeremie stay behind to look at the room some more.

"Hm…" Jeremie hums thoughtfully, before turning to walk off with John, who turns to look at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Are you _sure_ it was just a short-circuit Jeremie? I mean, if it was, then what caused all the cracks in the dressers and walls?" He asks. Jeremie thinks about it, before turning back to John.

"Most likely Sissi jumping back in shock. Or her bottles of ointment being blown across the room by the short-circuit in question." He replies. John nods his head, but isn't exactly sold on the idea that this was a normal event. He decides to put it off to the side for now, and wait to see if anything else happens that's electrical based. Seeing as Xana was basically an electro-kinetic virus, and it could have been him. As they walk into the gymnasium and continue to set up for the prom, Jeremie can't stop thinking about what John said. Finally, he speaks up. "What happened to Sissi… It was kinda weird. Don't you think?" he asks them as he messes with the DJ station.

"It was a short-circuit. A simple short-circuit. You said so yourself. What else could it be?" Ulrich responds, getting another piece of tape ready. John doing the same, but still wondering about the incident all the same.

"I'm not so sure Ulrich. And I think you know what I mean when I say that." John tells the brunette, before Yumi looks up from the CD she had in her hands as she sits on one of the foldable tables they'd set up for that night.

"Either way, let's play it real cool. Walls have ears, you know?" She asks them, subtly hinting that Herve and Nicholas were possibly listening in on their conversation. The group waits until the leave, and then Yumi gets off the table that they had set up, and stretches. "Well, I gotta go and get ready for the prom tonight." She tells them, before turning around to face them. "Sometimes being a day student can be a total drag." She says.

"I wouldn't complain if I were you. You don't have to wake up at six in the morning, you have hot running water _whenever_ you want instead of having to wait five minutes after the last person finishes, and you don't have to worry about the constant glow of the computer at night as Jeremie works on his different programs." John tells her with slight annoyance, while the genius in question blushes in embarrassment. Yumi just chuckles, before waving good-bye to the three still in the gym, since Odd had left earlier, and turns to walk towards the door.

"See you later." She tells them over her shoulder, although mostly John since the others wouldn't be going to the prom. John nods, before going back to work, trying his best to ignore the other two's smirks and chuckles in his direction, most likely due to the blush that had grown on his cheeks.

* * *

"Xana? In a teddy bear?" Ulrich asks as he holds onto a piece of paper with a crude drawing of a bear. Odd had grabbed it from the trash after the principal had thrown it away as he exited the infirmary after talking to Jim, who had apparently been attacked outside the secondary gymnasium.

"He's always there when you _least_ expect him." Jeremie says with a hand to his chin. John nodding in agreement.

"Alright guys, who goes? And who stays here?" Odd asks. Jeremie looks up at him.

"We can't have a solo mission. It's too dangerous without Yumi. If you go, you _never_ know what you're going to find over there." Jeremie tells him, shaking his head.

"I volunteer as tribute!" Odd exclaims, raising his hand in the air as he references Hunger Games, before Jeremie shoots him down.

"What did I just say?" He asks in annoyance, making Odd drop his hand and look at him with his _own_ annoyance.

"Well have you got any _other_ ideas? There have been _two_ accidents. We can't leave the school unguarded, and even going back in time if there's an accident, it's all over." Odd tells him, to which Jeremie rubs the back of his head. John nods his head though.

"Odd has a point. You two go to the factory. Ulrich, you and me will stay here to make sure that nothing happens. Go ahead and say high to you-know-who for us." John says, placing a hand on a blushing Jeremie's shoulder. The four of them knowing _exactly_ who he was talking about. "Jeremie, start up a Skype call when you get to the factory. That way we'll know for a fact that there's no prying ears as you make your way there." He tells the blond, getting a nod in response, before said blond, along with the other one, go running off to go to the factory. As they do so, the brunette and raven haired teens share a nod, before going off to check for any disturbances. They head to their separate rooms to grab flashlights, seeing as it was steadily getting darker out, and then head back outside to check for the possessed stuffed animal. They each put in earbuds with built in mics so that they can use both hands instead of needing to answer a phone and use one of said hands to hold it.

They don't have to wait long before they each get a ring, and answer to find Jeremie on the other end. "How are things on your guy's end?" They hear him ask.

"It looks like we have a problem." Ulrich responds.

"A _big_ one." John elaborates, shining his flashlight on the _giant_ round indents in the ground leading away from the secondary gym.

"Alright, I'm sending Odd to Lyoko as we speak, just see what you can do about it until then." Jeremie tells them, starting the scanning process for Odd as the two follow the round tracks. What they find doesn't lessen their fears any. Instead, it escalates them.

"Uh, Jeremie. Bad news. It looks like the bear managed to get out of the school." John tells the genius through the call, looking along with Ulrich at the damage to the wall that separated the school from the rest of town. The gate was crushed and bent, and the bricks had broken off in places. Leaving a gaping hole that lead to the street. Then, Aelita speaks up, having been connected to the Skype call.

"If it's controlled by Xana, it will only become much madder. It'll go after anyone and anything that's around. _Especially_ his mortal enemies. Like you guys." She tells them, eliciting a gasp of fear and surprise from Jeremie and Ulrich. But John doesn't think about that. What he thinks about is,

"Shit! Yumi!" He exclaims, before turning to Ulrich. "Ulrich, stay here in case Teddyzilla comes back to the school. I'm gonna go see if I can get to Yumi before the overgrown teddy bear does." He tells his friend, before rushing out of the hole in the wall, and heading off in the direction of Yumi's house. "Guys, I'm exiting the call to see if I can reach Yumi. Call me again if you find out anything of importance." He tells them, gaining "okay's" in response, before he exits the call like he said. Then, as he runs down the ruined street, he tries to call Yumi on her cellphone. "Come on Yumi… Answer… You _need_ to answer." He mutters to himself as he passes bent lampposts, crushed cars, and torn up pavement. He notices that the tracks continue down the same street, instead of deviating onto the one that Yumi lives on. The Lyoko group had shared their addresses in case something like this happened, and John thanked Jeremie for thinking of the idea.

As he turns onto the street, he takes the time to notice that there isn't a car parked in the driveway next to the house. _Guess her parents are out at the moment._ He thinks to himself as he pushes open the Iron Gate, taking the stairs up to her door two at a time, before pressing the doorbell. Double checking to make sure the name above said doorbell read "Ishiyama". After a minute, he presses it again, twice. Another minute passes, before the door opens to show Yumi. The only difference is what she's wearing. It takes John a second to remember why he's there, because standing in front of him is Yumi, but dressed _completely_ different. In place of the black sleeveless sweater, long sleeve T-shirt, black jeans and black boots, she was now wearing the same sweatshirt, with separate sleeves that reached from her wrist to just below her shoulders. In place of her jeans she had on a maroon skirt. She still had the black boots, but she also had black and red striped stockings on.

"John." She greets him with a breathtaking smile, breaking him out of his stupor. He then grabs onto her wrist and tries to pull her out of her house.

"Sorry about this Yumi, but we need to get out of here." He tells her, only for her to pull her wrist back.

"Hey, would you mind explaining what's going on?" She asks, only for the ground to start shaking, and make her look off towards where it's originating from ins surprise. John shakes his head with a frown, before grabbing her wrist and pulling her along again.

"I'll explain along the way. Come on!" He exclaims, pulling Yumi after him as they notice the giant, two-story tall teddy bear with a red Xana symbol in each of its eyes.

"What _is_ that?" Yumi asks. John quickly explains.

"Milly's teddy bear. Xana took control over it and _somehow_ increased its size. It escaped the school, and most likely went after you. Now, Jeremie's at the factory, while Odd is with Aelita stopping this thing. Ulrich is making sure that if that thing gets back to the school, nothing bad will happen." He tells her, just before they reach a crowded street, full of people who begin screaming when they notice the giant teddy bear heading in their direction. To John, one of them looks like the nurse, but he ignores it in favor of running from Teddyzilla, who's still set on killing him and Yumi. As the duo continues to run, they turn onto another street, before Yumi notices a building to their right.

"This way!" She exclaims, turning towards the building with John close behind as they push the first set of glass doors open, shut off the light, and sit down against the wall. They stay there, hidden in the dark as the giant Xana-teddy walks by, the force of its stomps succeeding in shattering the glass in the first set of doors. The two of them let out surprised and fearful yells as this happens, leaning away from them, and accidentally leaning into each other. Making each of them blush a bright red. John quickly stands after a moment, while Yumi sheepishly tucks a stray lock of hair behind her ear, her cheeks still flushed from what happened moments ago. John then re-joins Jeremie's call as he helps Yumi to her feet, and they take off running towards the school.

"Jeremie! It's John!" He yells into the mic on his earbuds after he re-joins the call. "Yumi's with me, and we're heading towards the school to see if we can evacuate everyone! Ulrich, I'd suggest you start with the gymnasium." He tells the brunette through the call, gaining a "Right!" from the teen in question. "And Jeremie, tell Odd to move it! It's getting rough around here, and I'm assuming that it's only gonna get worse from here on out." He tells his roommate as him and Yumi continue running towards the school, quickly arriving as John listens to Jeremie relay information. "Odd hasn't found the activated tower yet." He tells Yumi. "But it seems they've met an old spherical friend. You take care of the female dorms. I'll take care of the male ones. Ulrich should be taking care of the gymnasium right now." He tells her. She nods, before smirking.

"Seems like Sissi's not gonna get crowned beauty queen again huh?" She asks, prompting John to smirk as well.

"Yeah. Too bad for her." He tells her. They share a chuckle despite the situation, and then nod to each other before running off to their respective dorms. Seriousness taking over the situation once again. While Yumi manages to find Milly and Tamiya in the female dorms and clear them out, John doesn't find anyone in the male dorms, figuring that each of them managed to find someone to take. Utterly confusing him since hardly any of them seem like the kind that girls would _want_ to take to prom. Though he chalked it up as none of the girls wanted to be the only one who _didn't_ go. After he'd made sure that no one was in the dorms, he rushes back outside to find that Yumi isn't there yet. Most likely trying to see if any girls were still in the dorms. With that in mind, he rushes towards the gymnasium, hoping to help Ulrich clear it out. Only to find a scene that makes him pause in both confusion, horror, and a slight trace of amusement.

"Quiet, quiet! Shut up all of you! You bunch of idiots! Can't you see what he's doing? It's a trick I tell you! A trick to keep me from winning again this year!" He sees Sissi yell from up on stage, also noticing that there were two other couples up on stage, along with Nicholas and Herve, who Sissi most likely brought along simply because she needed a prom date and everyone else was already taken. "A gigantic teddy bear, come on. Why not King Kong while you're at it?" She asks in a disbelieving tone. Until stomps are heard outside, causing her to go wide eyed as the wall behind her is broken down, showing the gigantic teddy bear in question. Everyone begins screaming as Jim proceeds to faint as he sees the thing that put him in the infirmary earlier that day. The entire crowd inside the gymnasium quickly scatters, as Ulrich runs to John's side. The teddy bear notices the movement, and turns its glowing, red, Xana-symbol eyes on the duo.

"Go!" John shouts, shoving Ulrich towards the doors. "I'll distract the thing and give Odd time to get Aelita to the tower to deactivate it! _You_ make sure everyone gets out okay before anything happens! I'd rather _not_ test if going back in time brings back the dead!" He yells out, rushing around the teddy bear as Ulrich nods with a serious face, and goes off to do just that. John continues to run around Teddyzilla, being forced to dodge roll to the side each time the teddy bear in question attempts to crush him beneath one of its gigantic paws, one of the shockwaves actually managing to shatter some windows, and send John rolling further away from the Xana-possessed monster. Outside the gymnasium, Yumi sees the teddy bear and the shattered windows.

"John!" She yells out in fear for her friend, before rushing off and leaving a stunned Milly and Tamiya to look on at the destruction being caused by the pink haired reporter's teddy bear. Inside the gymnasium, despite his dodging, the teddy bear manages to catch up to John, and swipes at him. The hit sends him sprawling across the floor, before he eventually stops and lets out a groan of pain. As the teddy bear gets closer to the teen, he looks up with bruises and cuts evident on his face and arms as its shadow falls over him. Some of the cuts that he'd gotten slightly bleeding, since luckily, they weren't that deep. He looks up and gasps as the teddy bear readies a "paw" to crush him. He holds up his hands, as if they would protect him against the paw that would undoubtedly crush him should it continue its fall. Suddenly, the teddy bear's paw stops a couple feet above him, the red symbol of Xana in its eyes slowly fading away. "John!" A voice yells, making the teen in question looks to his right as Yumi kneels by his side, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay?" She asks. He nods in response, completely exhausted from the running, and almost being killed.

"Yeah, I think so." He responds, only to blush a bright red as Yumi wraps him in a hug and gives off a relieved laugh. _Is she… Am I… Are we…_ John doesn't finish any of these thoughts, as he just gives off a small smile of relief and happiness, and hugs Yumi back. Relieved to be alive, and beyond happy that _Yumi_ is _hugging_ him. After a few seconds, they pull away from the hug, the two of them blushing slightly when they realize what just happened between them. "Ready for a return to the past?" He asks her as the white light washes over them, before they see black.

* * *

John opens his eyes as an alarm starts blaring next to his ear. He slams his fist down on top of it to shut it off, and then looks around to find himself back in his and Jeremie's room at the academy, with Jeremie asleep at his computer, "typing" out a line of J's. John groggily pushes himself off his bed with a groan, the pain from the Xana attack changing so that he's only sore, and walks over to his friend, before…

_~Smack!~_

"Ouch!" Jeremie yelps, his head shooting up as he rubs the back of his head, staring up at the teen that caused his sudden pain.

"Wake up Einstein. Thanks to Xana, we've gotta set up the gymnasium for the prom again." John tells Jeremie, walking off with his toothbrush and toothpaste in hand, along with a towel, deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, and soap. After John is done freshening up for the day, he walks down to the cafeteria to eat breakfast. Finding the others in the group already there, he grabs some food, and sits down at their table. They have a quick breakfast, John taking some time to talk to Ulrich about a certain subject, and then they head off to get the gymnasium ready for the prom. Again.

Later, as Yumi is standing atop a ladder setting up decorations as John holds it to keep it from falling. Ulrich and Odd are by the stage setting up the sound equipment again. And just on cue, Milly walks up to the doorway. "Uh, John? Would you be my date tonight?" She asks, a small tear trailing down her blushing face. John replies in the same way as last time, but with less sheepishness.

"Sorry Milly, but I'm already going with Yumi tonight. But I'm sure that if you asked someone else who didn't have a date, they'd be glad to go with you." He tells her as Yumi gets off the ladder, and Ulrich and Odd walk up to them. Now Milly looks at Ulrich.

"U-Ulrich?" She asks. This time, Ulrich smiles slightly, before walking over, getting down on one knee so that he's at her height, and places a hand on her shoulder.

"Sure thing Milly. I'd be glad to." He tells her. "I'll meet you here at eight." Milly gets a hopeful look on her face.

"R-really?" She asks with a smile. Ulrich nods as he stands up again.

"Sure. I don't have anything going on tonight that can't be moved to a different one." He tells her. At this, Sissi stares disbelievingly.

"_What_?!" She screeches out. "B-But Ulrich! You're-you're gonna go with that-that silly _baby_?!" She yells out. At this, everyone looks on with smiles (Read: _Smug_ smiles) on their faces.

"That's right, I sure am. Bur don't worry, when your _brain_ gets another neuron or two, maybe I'll go out with _you_ too." He tells her mockingly. She responds by getting a large blush, and growling in anger and embarrassment. Everyone chuckles lightly at her reaction.

"You _are_ recording this, right Tamiya?" Milly asks the girl with the camera standing next to her.

"You bet I am. This is a _scoop_." Tamiya replies.

"A _super-scoop_." Milly says with a grin, right before Sissi goes storming out of the hall followed by Nicholas and Herve, leaving everyone else to laugh at her misfortune. When they finally calm down enough, the group goes back to setting up the gym, with the occasional chuckle when they remember what happened, while Milly and Tamiya head off to do whatever. Most likely find more stories for the news, or post the news that they now had on Sissi. As the day continues, Jeremie joins the group, and everyone works hard to get the gym ready. Especially since their stunt earlier had made it so that Sissi and her followers weren't helping them. But besides that, the group worked well. Only taking breaks to eat, and a couple when they were either sifting through the CD's to find good songs to play that night, or resting after lifting a few heavy objects. Finally, they finish setting up the gymnasium just in time for dinner. Yumi had left earlier in the day because she was a day student, while the rest of the group was now heading towards the cafeteria.

After they've grabbed their food, the group sits at "their" table, eat, and then head off to either waste time or, in Ulrich and John's case, get ready for the prom. John quickly freshens up in the male's bathroom, making sure to put on extra deodorant, and then changes into clothes more suited for the prom. These consist of a black "Avenged Sevenfold" shirt with the words written in white on the front, and their symbol on the back of the shirt. The wings spreading between his shoulder blades, with the skull in the middle. He was also wearing dark blue jeans, and black sneakers. After he was dressed, he made his way off school grounds, and headed towards Yumi's. Since it was Friday, he would be heading back to his house after the prom. When he arrives at Yumi's, he rings the doorbell and waits patiently for her outside. After a few minutes, Yumi opens the door to show that she was dressed in the same clothes as the last time. John smirks, though it takes a few seconds since he was rendered speechless, just like the last time he'd seen her dressed in those clothes.

"Hey Yumi." He greets her, blushing slightly as he remembers the hug they'd shared right before time reset.

"Hey." She replies, a blush also present. There's a bit of an awkward silence as the two try to find the right words to say.

"So… Shall we?" John asks her, waving his hands for her to go first. Yumi nods as the awkwardness starts to go away slightly, and then she leaves her house. Making sure to close and lock the door behind her since her parents aren't home. As the two of them walk down the street towards the school, the awkwardness returns since they don't know what to say to each other. It stays with them until they reach the gym, and then they walk in to find everyone having a good time. The duo shares a glance, before smiling, and joining in with the party. They dance, drink (Soda, you idiots), eat the snacks that were provided, and make small talk. As they do this, the awkwardness disappears. While there, they run into Ulrich and Milly, and talk to them as well. Soon enough, it's time for the king and queen to be announced. John stands with the other males, gaining glares from Herve and Nicholas, while Sissi gains glares from the other three girls. But in the end, the winner is…

"Yumi Ishiyama and John Hopper!" Principal Delmas announces. Sissi's screech is drowned out by the cheering of the crowd. Last year Sissi may have been elected as the beauty queen because of her… well, _beauty_, but it seemed that after the news was released by Milly and Tamiya about what happened to the pinkette earlier, them being able to post it because Milly wasn't preoccupied with hating older kids, the other students didn't exactly like how she acted. So instead, they voted on a different couple. When this is announced, John and Yumi stare with wide eyes, before walking forwards to accept the crowns on their heads. They smile at each other, hold hands with large blushes, and then smile out at Ulrich, Milly, Tamiya, and the rest of the crowd when they see everyone clapping and cheering. Milly was there with Ulrich, while Tamiya was allowed there for the newspaper that her and Milly gave out around school. This was the greatest night for the two of them, and Sissi's disbelieving face and yell of surprise and anger just made it even better. They would remember this night forever.

* * *

**Author's Note Part 2: Alright! Two chapters in one day! I had fun writing this chapter, especially the parts that I made up on my own. I imagine Yumi being shy around any guy she likes, and my own OC is also a little shy. (Just like me in these kinds of situations).**

**Like I said in the last chapter, because these two are together, it will change many things in the story line. And when it reaches the part where William is introduced, well… Things will most likely deviate from the original plotline ****_greatly_****. Also know that because of John being paired with Yumi, it's possible that I'll just end up switching his and Ulrich's parts a few times. Like I did so in this episode. But because it's John and not Ulrich in the situations, things will most likely be different. Whether it's slightly, or greatly.**

**Anyways, see you next time, and thanks for taking the time out of your day to read this!**

**P.s. I'm not gonna beg, but I've been getting a good amount of views, but no ****_re_****views, favorites, or follows. If you guys wouldn't mind, please tell me what you like, dislike, give me suggestions for later, even PM me about this if you want. I want to know what you guys think about this. Flames will be used to burn Xana's minions on earth.**

**(Update: Jan. 11****th****, 2015:**

**Well guys, this is the latest updated chapter, which has quite a few additions, and changes made from the original version. Now, know that the next one will most likely have even more changes, since I have quite a few changes in mind for when he goes into Lyoko. And no, I will not tell you what they are until you read it. But, that's about it for this, beside the one extra review that I'm going to respond to here:**

***Michael*:**

Thanks for the compliment, and you don't really have to worry. Yes, I'm changing some things, but that's simply because I'm changing things so that the story will fit in with my current writing style.

**Thanks for all of you who are sticking with me, and I hope to see you all next time!)**


	4. Chapter 4: Nuclear Sabotage

**Chapter 4: Nuclear Sabotage**

* * *

**Author's Note Part 1: Well guys, here's the fourth edited chapter. In this one, John goes into Lyoko for the second time, but technically he goes in for the first time that will have significant changes. Also, for those of you who actually ****_like_**** the fact that this is an OC x Yumi fanfiction, know that I already have an episode in mind for when they get together. (However, I will not tell you when that is, since I don't want to spoil it). Anyways, I think you guys just want to get to reading the story. So, here's the latest chapter!**

* * *

**3****rd**** POV:**

* * *

The four guys of the Lyoko group are currently sitting in Ms. Hertz class, half of them distracted and bored out of their minds like the rest of the class. Ulrich is looking out the window as a flock of birds fly by, while Odd is sketching a picture of Kiwi peeing on a rock… Don't ask. The only two actually paying attention to the lecture taking place are John and Jeremie. Jeremie takes notes on a piece of paper, while John uses his computer. As the Chief Engineer of the nuclear reactor finishes his lecture and asks if anyone has questions, Jeremie raises his hand. "Uh, sir?" He begins, gaining the attention of everyone else in the class as well. John looks up from his computer as Jeremie asks about materializing virtual objects onto earth. Unfortunately, he doesn't get the answer he was hoping for.

"Son, that is in the realm of science fiction. Sorry." The CE responds as he adjusts his glasses. John rolls his eyes at the man's response.

_Everyone we tell about that kind of thing says the _exact_ same thing._ He thinks as Ms. Hertz speaks up.

"Jeremie is an excellent student, but he's a bit of a dreamer." She tells the CE, as the rest of the class starts to laugh outright at Jeremie's question. That is, until John, Ulrich and Odd turn around to glare at them. The three give satisfied smirks as the laughing ceases, and then they turn back to the front of the class. Only for the projector that Ms. Hertz was using, to show a diagram of the nuclear reactor, to apparently short-circuit. The small group of friends shares a glance at the event, just before the bell rings to signal that class was over, and that most of the people in the group would now have their free period. The students all pack up their bags and exit the room, leaving the CE and Ms. Hertz to worry about the projector. The four guys meet outside the room, before heading down the stairs towards the exit. On the way there, they start up a conversation about what just occurred.

"So what do you guys think?" Jeremie asks them. John immediately knows what he's talking about, but apparently Odd doesn't.

"About what?" The blond boy asks. Jeremie and John roll their eyes at their friend's question.

"The short-circuit Odd. What else would you think that Jeremie's talking about?" John asks him. Ulrich shrugs his shoulders, shifting his backpack a little in the process.

"It was a short-circuit John, Jeremie. Nothing more, nothing less." He tells him as they get near the exit of the building.

"Well _I _for one think that it's Xana." Jeremie tells them as they exit, the four boys seeing Yumi standing a few yards away, waiting for them.

"Ah, don't get so excited Jeremie. Like Ulrich said, it was just a short-circuit." Odd tell him, agreeing with Ulrich.

"Well _I_ agree with Jeremie. Better to be safe than sorry. After all, remember the _last time_ we thought it was just a short-circuit?" John asks them, referring to "Teddyzilla", as John had dubbed the Xana-possessed teddy bear, as they stop in front of Yumi, who greet them with a nod. But before the girl can be brought into the argument the four boys are currently having, the principal walks up to them.

"Odd." He begins, gaining the group's attention. "I've thought it over and you can form your group. The, uh, "Fox Trot Fanatics"?" He tells the boy, though asks about the name.

"Yes!" Odd exclaims, while Ulrich, John and Yumi smile.

"Uh, it's the, "Pop Rock Progressives" sir." Yumi corrects him, though in a respectful way.

"But," The principal continues. "It must be open to anyone who wants to play, is that clear?" He asks.

"No problemo sir." Odd tells him, the others nodding in response. The principal nods in return, before turning around and walking away. As he's walking away, Odd slides along the ground on his knees. "Yes! Let's hear it for the "God of Rock and Roll"!" Odd exclaims, throwing his arms into the air in celebration. Gaining a few chuckles from the rest of the group in the process, before he checks his watch and gets back up to face Jeremie. "Hey come on Jeremie. If we hurry, we can copy the leaflets before lunch." He says, only for Jeremie to shake his head in response.

"Well you know Odd, I'm not really into rock and roll. Besides, I want to check on that outage." He tells them, before walking away.

"Alright, see you later Jeremie!" Yumi calls after him.

"Make sure to call or text us if you find anything!" John exclaims, before turning back to the others. "Well, guess it's just us printing the leaflets Odd." He tells the blond haired boy, who nods in response. "Guess we'll see you guys at lunch." John continues, looking at Ulrich and Yumi. The two nod in response, before the rest of the group separates. Odd and John head off to the library to create and print the leaflets for the band, while Ulrich and Yumi go off towards their own classes that they still had.

When John and Odd arrive at the Library, John sits at one of the tables, opens his laptop, opens a new Word Document, and then proceeds to work on the leaflets with Odd. After they've written down what they wanted, they print up plenty of copies, and then spend the rest of their free period taking care of the homework they'd been assigned, and then just wasting time once they finish everything. Soon, it was time for lunch and the two headed off to the cafeteria. When they arrive, they grab their trays of food, and sit down at "their group's" table. As they're getting their second helpings, the rest of the group slowly trickles into the cafeteria. "Hey guys." Yumi greets them, the first to show up, before sitting down at her usual seat next to John.

"Hey Yumi." John greets, while Odd just nods in her direction due to his mouth being filled with food. Soon after John and Odd finish their second helpings, the rest of the group arrives and grab their own lunch. The raven haired and spikey, blond haired teens begin to distribute the leaflets around the cafeteria, while the others in the group start on their own meals. Odd ends up running into Jim, while John continues to walk around and hand out the leaflets. After a while, he runs into Sissi's group. Nicholas is standing next to the table, and holds out his hand for a leaflet. John stares at the hand, before handing one of the leaflets over begrudgingly, remembering the principal's words about anyone being able to join. Finally, after the group finishes their lunches, they head out towards one of the vending machines on school grounds. Odd puts in some money, and then goes through the list of different items he can get.

"Let's see… Hot chocolate? No. Soup? No, the soup tastes like dishwater." He comments. A few seconds later, John leans over his shoulder and presses the button for Hot Chocolate. "Hey, you pressed Hot Chocolate!" Odd exclaims in protest. John shrugs in response.

"At least it's better than the soup." He tells the blond teen. Said teen turns around to face the machine, only for it to give a few drops the intended drink. Odd leans forwards and grabs the cup with a groan.

"This miserable machine's on the blink again." He declares, emptying the few drops onto the ground next to him.

"Maybe it's another power failure." Jeremie suggests, John nodding in agreement.

"Are you worried?" Yumi asks him.

"Yeah I am." Jeremie responds. "I'll keep checking things out." He tells them.

"Alright. If you need us, we'll be in the gym. We're gonna hold auditions." Yumi tells Jeremie before the group splits. Jeremie heading off to check the power again, while the others go to the gym to see if anyone responded to their request for a drummer. They arrive at the gym, set up the audition drum kit and a few chairs, and then sit in said chairs before letting the first person in. The four listen with interest as this person plays. Once the person finishes playing, Odd speaks up.

"Well, yeah. You've got a lot of style. It's heavy metal, right?" He asks.

"Oh yeah. For sure, I love it." The person on stage replies.

"Really sorry Mike, but we're looking for something a little more, uh…" Yumi tries to find the right word, so John steps in.

"Rock-like. Thanks for trying out though. I'm sure if another band is created and they're looking for a heavy metal drummer, you'd get a place in their band for sure." He tells the drummer with a reassuring smile, getting a smile of their own and shrug in response.

"Next!" Odd calls out as Mike places the drumsticks on the drums, and walks out of the room. John turns to see who walks in, and rolls his eyes when Odd suddenly looks on in interest, not even listening to the person play yet. So John leans over towards Ulrich, since the seating arrangements went Odd, Yumi, John, and then Ulrich.

"Don't look now, but I think we'll have a bias judge on this one no matter what." He warns the brunette as a girl walks onto the stage.

"Hello guys." She greets them. John gives his standard two fingered salute, while Odd leans forwards in his chair.

"Hey, how are you Naomi?" He asks. "I didn't know you played the drums." He says with interest.

"Well, yeah. A little. Besides, I've always dreamed of being in a band." She tells them.

"Well okay then, go on." Ulrich encourages her, John looking on with interest now along with Yumi, wondering what this girl is going to bring to the table. The next thing they know, the girl is randomly beating on the different parts of the drum for a few seconds, before placing the sticks down and then standing up to take a bow. The result is Odd standing up and clapping, while the others look at the girl with slight surprise.

"Wow that was great Naomi!" Odd exclaims, before turning to the others. "I mean, come on, we're not gonna find anyone better right?" He asks. The other three turning to slightly glare at him, before John turns back to Naomi.

"Well it was definitely, interesting." He tells her. "And we'll take you into consideration. We haven't listened to everyone else yet, so we can't just go ahead and make you part of the band without listening to the others first. We'll contact you at a later date if you get the part though." He tells her with a slight smile, finding a way so that she wouldn't leave in tears. The girl's response is to smile at them and nod, before leaving. Once she does, John puts his head in his hands. "This is one of the main reasons I hate being a judge for _anything_. I'm just lucky I found a way around telling her how bad she actually is right now." He says. Yumi places a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, don't worry about it John. At least now we know what to say to everyone else that auditions. Even if they _are_ really good." She tells him. Ulrich nodding in agreement.

"Yeah. I guess." John replies, lifting his head up, before he notices what Yumi's doing. Then he promptly blushes a light shade of red, followed by Yumi as she slowly pulls her hand away. Out of the corner of his eye, John notices Ulrich stifling a laugh behind his hand, and sends a glare his way that would rival that of a certain purple haired mage on a television series that John watches. This glare prompts Ulrich to shut up, as Odd sits down dejectedly in his chair at Naomi not immediately being their drummer. But tries to hold onto the hope that she _will_. The auditions continue for a good hour, before the line of people outside the gym is gone, seemingly everyone auditioning that wanted to. When this happens, the four teens stay seated, thinking about the different drummers that auditioned, while Odd uses drum sticks to drum out random patterns on his legs. A few seconds later, right before John was going to start talking to the others about who should be admitted into the band, the door is pushed open and an exhausted and sweating Jeremie walks in.

"Woah. Finally take my advice and exercise Jeremie?" John asks with a sarcastic smirk, though he has a better guess as to why Jeremie's here. And he has a feeling that he's sure not gonna like it. It's probable that _none of them _will.

"_~Pant~_ No John." Jeremie replies. "The power outages, _~Pant~_ they're Xana's doing. I'm almost, _~Pant~_ sure of it." He tells them, taking one of the other seats situated near the others and sitting in it.

"Yeah, go on." Yumi encourages him, the others listening in with seriousness. The possibility of another Xana attack demanding their full attention and putting drum auditions out of their minds at the moment. Jeremie wipes his forehead with his sleeve to clear away some more sweat, before answering.

"The power's cutting out all over the school, and the pylon outside is _way_ over the voltage limit. It could explode!" He exclaims. The rest of the group stares at him with surprise.

"But, why would Xana do that?" Ulrich asks. John jumps in at that point.

"Well, depending on the explosion, it could wipe out a considerable amount of space. And if we're anywhere near the pylon at the time of the explosion-" Even though he's cut off by a voice at the doorway, the rest know what he's getting at.

"Surprise." The voice in question says, gaining the attention of everyone there. Especially since the owner of said voice was _Sissi_. She walks in from the main entrance to the gym with Herve and Nicholas at her sides. As she walks over, she grabs a chair, and sits on it so she can drape her arms across the part that your back is supposed to lean against. "It's obvious that me and my friends aren't very welcome here, but, my _father_ did say that the band was open to everybody, right?" She asks smugly, making John think that _she_ had something to do with her father allowing them to make the band. The others stare at her with glares. "Oh, but don't worry. I don't want to be in a group of _dead beat_ _wierdos_." She continues, gaining harsher glares, John on the verge of giving his version of the purple haired mage's "Death Glare", though he manages to hold it back in case she went off and talked to her father because of it. "But," She continues. "Nicholas just _loves_ the drums." She tells them, placing a hand on said teen's shoulder.

"A drummer huh?" Odd asks with his arms crossed. "What's he play? His mom's pots and pans?" Odd asks mockingly. John shakes his head at his friend's sentence. As much as he hated the "terrible trio", he would not mock someone about something like this. After all, he knew what it was like. Getting mocked by peers simply because he believed that the zombie apocalypse was possible. He's broken out of his thoughts as Jeremie speaks up.

"Alright guys, I'm off. I'll contact you if anything comes up." He tells them, subtly mentioning the factory to them instead of saying out loud for _obvious_ reasons. John, Yumi and Ulrich nod in his direction, before he goes running off. As he does so, Nicholas walks up to the stage, grabs the drumsticks, and proceeds to play. When this happens, the four judges stare on with amazement at his skills, John noticing out of the corner of his eyes that Sissi is watching their reactions with a smug smirk.

_Great. Now I'm almost _positive_ that Sissi set this up._ He thinks, still amazed as Nicholas finishes his drumming. Sissi and Herve are quick to clap, followed by Yumi, John and Ulrich. Odd just continues to stare at the stage, his arms crossed again, and his face having a steely expression on it now. Sissi laughs mockingly in their direction as Nicholas walks over to her and Herve.

"Looks like you found yourself a drummer." She tells them mockingly, before getting up and walking off with Herve and the drummer in question behind her. Odd looks over his shoulder at their retreating forms with a scowl on his face.

"Nicholas? The drummer in _our_ band? I don't care _how_ good he is, the answer is no. Besides, Sissi just set this up to give us a hard time." He tells the others. Yumi speaks up at this.

"Maybe for once she was actually trying to help. And you've got to admit, Nicholas can _really_ play the drums." She tells them. John nodding his head in agreement.

"While I don't exactly agree with the first part Yumi, I'll admit that Nicholas _is_ good." He tells her, still thinking that Sissi just set this up to mess with them.

"Better than Naomi, that's for sure." Ulrich imputes, leaning back with his arms crossed behind his head. Odd leans towards him while Yumi thinks about what John said, and nods in agreement.

"She's only a beginner. She needs a little more time." Odd tries to tell him, only for Ulrich to shoot him down.

"Yup, a couple of years should do it." He tells Odd, causing the blond boy to stand up.

"Well if that's how you feel, then listen up. If you want Nicholas to be _your_ drummer, then you better find yourself another Bassist." He tells them. Yumi leans forwards to argue.

"And I say if you _don't_ take him, you better find yourself a new _singer_." She tells him. Ulrich and John share a look, before sighing.

"If Sissi's idea was to cause trouble…" John trails off.

"She's done a great job of it." Ulrich finishes, before turning around and looking over his shoulder at the sound of a trombone. "Huh?" he asks, turning to find that the source of the noise is Jim.

"Uh, would you guys need a slide trombone by any chance?" he asks with a smile. Getting "Huh?" in return from the four teens in question. Jim then walks over in front of them, before starting to play said trombone, not even waiting for them to answer his question. When he finishes, he turns to them with a smile. "So, what do you think?" he asks. The four share a look, before Odd walks towards the gym teacher.

"Uh, you see Jim. The thing is, we're a rock band. Not a military brass band." He tells Jim, right before Yumi's phone starts to ring. She listens in for a minute, before answering.

"Alright. Be right there." She says into the phone, before cutting the call, and putting her phone away. "We're going to have to audition you another time Jim." She tells the teacher in question.

"Oh no you don't. You're not going anywhere unless you agree to take me as part of your group!" he exclaims, shaking his fist for emphasis, only for the group in question to run out of the room, leaving him to stand there. As the group runs into the forest, John turns to Yumi.

"Jeremie say it's a Xana attack?" He asks.

"Yeah." She replies. "He didn't explain what it is though. He just said to get to the factory as quickly as we could." She tells him. John nods in response, before they continue running. Finally, they manage to get to the manhole cover in the forest, and John opens it before going down. As he descends, he hears Odd talking to Jeremie on his phone up above. When John gets down to the bottom, he makes his way to the entrance from the secondary gym, and grabs his skateboard, along with Yumi's. When she arrives, he tosses her skateboard to her, and then picks up Ulrich's. Doing the same when the German teen arrives. Finally, Odd arrives and Ulrich tosses his skateboard to him. The four teens quickly take off down the sewers, boarding past rats, and jumping sewer water. Finally, they arrive at the manhole cover that leads to the factory. John goes first, and then turns around to help Yumi up behind him. Ulrich is next, and Odd is the last to ascend, closing the manhole cover behind them in case anybody comes by.

The four teens run across the bridge, before swinging down the ropes to the waiting elevator. They enter, and press the button to bring them to the computer room. When the doors open, the four teens walk into the room to find Jeremie behind the super-computer's screen. The blond haired teen leans to the side to look at them past the screen, and sighs in relief. "At last." He says, before they walk over and look at the screen, waiting to be debriefed. "Here's what Xana's up to. Once he's stored enough Voltage in that pylon, he'll unleash it all." Jeremie tells them, pointing at a program of the pylon in question. Odd asks the question on everyone's minds.

"Unleash it where?" Jeremie turns to face him.

"Guess." The others take a moment, before shrugging. Showing that they don't know. "On the nuclear plant." He tells them. Everyone gasps at this.

"Creating a short-circuit, and…" Yumi trails off.

"Effectively blowing us all to kingdom come." John finishes with wide eyes. _And to think, this all _started_ with a short-circuit._ John thinks about the irony of the situation as everyone else stays silent at this grave realization, before Jeremie speaks up again.

"The pylon can take up to 1,000,000 volts. Once it's all built up, Xana can use it to blow _everything_ up." He tells them.

"Nuclear sabotage. That's a little over our heads, wouldn't you say?" Yumi asks, gaining a nod from John in the process, while Ulrich looks on with a raised eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" He asks. Yumi turns to him.

"Think about it. If we fail on Lyoko, the whole state, and possibly one of the neighboring ones, would be wiped out. We _have _to warn the authorities." She tells the group. Jeremie looks at her like she's crazy, while John nods in agreement, though not without a sad face at the realization of what it means.

"Are you crazy? There'll be an _inquiry_. And we'll be _questioned_. Then we'll have to tell them _everything_. If they discover Xana, they'll pull all the plugs out." He tells her.

"And we'll lose Aelita." Yumi says, seeing where he was going. "I know that. But we're talking about a nuclear _disaster_ here." She tells him, before the two get into a stare down. Ulrich and Odd start to shy away, while John, having seen worse glares before, having one of the worst ones out there, and stays next to them and thinks about this. Finally, Jeremie speaks up, and breaks the staring contest.

"Alright, let's put it to a vote." He tells them. "Who's for raising the alarm?" He asks, getting out of the chair, and standing with the group in a pentagonal shape.

"For." Yumi says.

"Against." Jeremie argues. The other three stare on, before Odd raises his hand.

"Against." He votes. Aelita appears on a tab on the super-computer, and John turns to look at her. Thinking about the vote, and what it would mean.

"Sorry Aelita. But I also think we can't take that big a risk. I vote for, let's report it." Ulrich says, raising his hand. All four heads turn to John, who has his hand to his chin in a thinking manner. Finally, after a minute, he looks up at the group.

"I have a third option." He tells them, gaining raised eyebrows in response.

"How could there be a third option? We either tell everyone about this, or we take the risk." Ulrich asks him. Only for John to hold up his hands in order to quiet them down.

"No. The third option is that we do both." He tells them. "Yumi, you were the one who suggested that we tell people. So you can go to the school, and tell them about this. If that doesn't work, I'm sure people have noticed the pylon sparking by now. So you can tell the people working on it. While you do that, Me, Odd and Ulrich will head into Lyoko to see if we can't get Aelita to the tower to de-activate it. That way, if we fail, we'll still be able to get out of this mess. But if we succeed, then we won't lose Aelita." He tells them. "Now, who's with me?" He asks. Gaining nods from everyone else, including Aelita. "Alright. It's decided. Yumi, I'm not even sure if they'll believe you when you tell them about this stuff, but good luck." He tells her. She nods in response, before she runs off to attempt her idea.

When the elevator returns to the computer lab floor, Ulrich, Odd and John step into it. Then it descends, and the trio steps out into the scanner room. They step into their separate scanners, and Jeremie begins the scanning process. "Transfer: Ulrich. Transfer: Odd. Transfer: John. Scanner: Ulrich. Scanner: Odd. Scanner: John. Virtualization!" He exclaims, the familiar feeling of being stretched between two far away points hits the trio, before all they see is black.

* * *

When the blackness fades away, the trio is greeted by the familiar landscape of Lyoko. Although for John, it's his fist time seeing the desert section. The other two land in crouches, while John opts to be cool, and rolls with the landing, ending in a crouched position with his left knee on the ground, and his right foot on the ground next to it. "Show off." He hears Ulrich mutter, sending a smirk over his shoulder at the brunette, before standing up as Odd does the same and walks over to them.

"We're gonna make it, right guys?" He asks as they see Aelita off in the distance.

"I sure hope so." Ulrich answers, just before they start running towards Aelita. As they do so, they all hear Jeremie's voice.

"Alright I've got it. The scan has located the activated tower." As the trio arrives in front of Aelita, they share a nod. "It's in the desert region. Near an oasis." He tells them. John smiles at this.

"Well, I guess it's a good thing we arrived in the desert region huh? It sure saves time." He tells the others, gaining nods in response, before Aelita speaks up.

"I know where it is. Over there," She begins, turning around to point. "On the other plateau." She continues. John takes time to look, and his eyes nearly pop out of their sockets.

"You're telling me that we're gonna need to climb on the giant, sparking, pulsing red wires to get across?!" he exclaims in surprise. Aelita shakes her head.

"No. I can create a pathway out of the environment to get us across. But I won't be able to do anything else while I focus on that." She tells them, gaining a breath of relief from the trio, and then a thumbs up from John.

"Alright. Well, you can count on us to defend you if we need to at those times." He tells her. She smiles and nods, before entering her meditation state to begin on the first pathway. Luckily, the small group makes it to the oasis without any problems. However, once they arrive…

"I don't believe this, what's going on? Where's the activated tower?" Odd asks as they arrive at the oasis, only for there to be no tower.

"We can't see it now, but it's here alright. Just look at Xana's pulsations. They all converge here." Aelita tells them, just as more of the pulsations in question lead toward the oasis.

_Like a heartbeat._ John thinks to himself, before the four of them start looking around for any type of tower. John even walks around with his hands in front of his body in case it's somehow invisible. Hey, if it's possible to scan someone and send them into a virtual world, then it's possible for something in said virtual world to be invisible. Finally, Odd and John settle down by the edge, looking around to see if they can spot it even after they've looked, while Ulrich tries digging into the ground with his katana. John decides to take this time to finally have a good look at his sniper rifle. He slings it off his back, and takes a look. Eyes widening and mouth dropping when he sees it clearly. Because he'd seen the sniper before, and wished he could use it. And now he could.

The sniper rifle that he'd been given on Lyoko, was Yoko Littner's sniper rifle from the anime "Gurren Lagann" Complete with the yellow and black hazard stripes on the back, and the three different scopes that he could swap to see out of. It was still the blue color, and it was still badass. There were only two differences. As mentioned before, the strap was black. The other difference? In place of Yoko's skull symbol on the clip, there was a white Lyoko symbol. "Odd… Take a closer look at this." He mutters. Odd turns from his rock tossing to look at the sniper rifle. His mouth drops open in shock as the drop that he'd been holding drops to the ground.

"No way… I didn't notice that before… Is that…" Odd trails off and John nods.

"Yoko Littner's sniper rifle." He finishes the sentence. The blond boy whistles in appreciation at the weapon in John's hands.

"Man. You get all the cool stuff here on Lyoko. You're like the complete opposite of me here." Odd tells him. "I wish that _I_ had that stuff." He continues, picking up the rock from before and tossing it into the water of the oasis. The two teens watch it sail through the air, before it hits the water and… creates a light. The two boys turn to look at each other. Each voicing the same thought.

"Huh?" They ask, before turning back to the oasis. Odd sticks out a hand, and then places it in the supposed "water". Only for it to go straight through as John slips his sniper onto his back once more. Odd takes his hand back out, noticing that nothing happened to it, and then turns to the others.

"I've found it." He tells them, gaining Ulrich and Aelita's attention.

"We've been tricked. That's not water, it's just a surface layer. Or at least, a _fake_ surface layer." John continues for him, gaining a nod from the blond haired teen.

"I'll go take a closer look." Odd tells them, before diving into the water. The others wait a few seconds to hear from Jeremie if Odd was de-virtualized, only to hear nothing and jump in after him. A few seconds after jumping in, the three land on solid ground behind Odd, seeing the activated tower off in the distance. They nod to each other, before taking off. As they enter a "hallway" between rocks that are jutting out of the ground, John starts thinking to himself.

_You know. This would be the _perfect_ place for Xana to set up an ambush. Either he doesn't realize this, or there will be one in a few seconds._ As John finishes thinking this, they exit the space between the rocks and get a clear view of the tower. _Okay, wow. Xana _really_ didn't know. That's... Surprising really._ He thinks as Odd points up at the activated tower.

"There it is." He states, right before the group of four notices red binary code swarming together, only to form three Krabs a second later. One of which shoots Odd in his right leg.

"Odd!" They hear Jeremie exclaim.

"I _hate_ these horrible Krabs." Odd declares, just as the Krabs in question take up positions to defend the activated tower. Ulrich readies his Katana, as John takes his sniper off his back. Then Ulrich turns to Aelita. "Aelita, it's you they're after. Go hide!" He exclaims. Aelita does just that, only to be chased by one of the Krabs.

"Aelita!" Odd exclaims, running forwards as the Krab shoots at Aelita, jumping in front of a shot that would have hit her. Only to get de-virtualized by said shot. John makes sure to stay by Aelita after that, seeing as with the targets being on top of the Krabs, his sniper wouldn't really be able to do anything. He'd have to be in the air, or on a platform above them to be able to shoot them. And unfortunately, none of the rocks were high enough for that. As Aelita makes it behind one of said rocks, John stays there with her, making sure that his sniper is ready to use if he needs it. Him and Aelita watch as Ulrich splits into three, using one of his abilities on Lyoko, and manages to take out two of the Krabs. When there's one left, Ulrich merges back together and runs half way towards it, before being hit by the Krab in his shoulder. He falters for a second, only to continue rushing the Krab a moment later. As he does this, John leans out from behind the rock, and takes a shot at the Krab's lens that was gearing up for another shot.

"Take _this_ you overgrown shellfish!" He exclaims, looking down the normal scope, and pressing on the trigger.

**_~KRA-KSH!~_**

The sniper lets off its shot, and the Krab staggers a bit, allowing Ulrich to leap onto the top, and stab his katana through the symbol. Before he leaps off and lands in front of the two standing by the rock. "Okay. It's up to you Aelita." He tells the pink haired girl. The girl in question nods, before rushing into the tower, leaving John and Ulrich behind. John walks up to Ulrich, who smirks at him and gives a fist bump. "Thanks for the help." He thanks the raven haired teen, who nods in response.

"Yea, no problem. Just wish I could have done more than just staggered it." He says with a frown, making Ulrich place a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, that just goes to show that there are some of Xana's monsters that you aren't be able to face at times. I'm sure there will be other ones that I can't face at times, and other ones that Odd and Yumi won't be able to face at times." Ulrich admits. Getting a nod from John, just before their world is engulfed in white, and they see blackness.

* * *

Once again, John wakes up to the sound of his alarm going off. He shuts it off, and then looks up to see Jeremie once again asleep at his computer. John sighs, stretches, gets up, and then wakes up Jeremie the same way he always wakes him up.

_~Smack!~_

With a smack to the back of his head. "Ouch!" The blond haired teen yelps, straightening up in his chair and rubbing the back of his head.

"Come on Jeremie. We've got to get ready for classes… Again." John tells him as he grabs the usual items for getting ready for the day, before leaving to do just that. The day passes the same as last time. The only difference being there's no short-circuit on the projector, Jeremie doesn't ask the CE about materializing virtual objects on earth, and Odd takes everyone into thought for the rock band. Which leads to how the band is set up now.

Yumi is singing, Ulrich is on the keyboard, Odd is playing the bass, John is playing the guitar, Nicholas is on the drums, and… Jim is playing his trombone. Meanwhile, in the crowd, Jeremie watches with a bag of popcorn, while Sissi watches with her arms crossed. Probably in annoyance since it would seem that her plan didn't work. Odd watches as Nicholas plays, before moving over next to Yumi and John. "You guys were right. He's doing great." He admits. The two smirk.

"Who are you talking about? Jim?" Yumi asks him, the three turning to look at the gym teacher in question.

"Gotta admit, the song _does_ sound pretty good with his trombone playing." John admits as the band leads into the final notes, Jeremie speaking up from the audience.

"Great guys, your energy is super-nuclear. You're gonna make this town explode!" He exclaims, clapping as they finish the song. John smirking at Jeremie's inside joke, before turning to the rest of the band and nodding. They had a great rehearsal, and they would most likely be ready for the actual performance in a week's time. Now if only Xana would stay dormant until then…

* * *

**Author's Note Part 2: Alright, fourth chapter done! As you can see, there were a few small changes I made to this from the actual episode. One of which being that, in the actual episode, Jeremie announces that he's going to the factory, ****_with Sissi right there_****. I found that ****_really_**** stupid of him, so I made it so he told them in a more subtle way. The second thing I changed, in the episode, Odd tells them that if they accept Nicholas, they should get a new guitarist. But at the end, he's playing a bass. So I made him the bassist, and John the guitarist.**

**A few things to look forwards to.**

**1: The next chapter will most likely be a combination of episodes three and five. What I mean by that, is that it will mostly be episode five, and because John would go to the apartment he lives at for the week long holiday and have nothing to really do with most of episode three, there will instead be a flashback to what he did in the third episode.**

**2: Going off of that. You guys should know that not all episodes will be in the exact order of the series. Some will be changed around so that the plot line can advance in the way I want it to. So if it seems like I skip an episode, I didn't and it will just come later in the series.**

**Well, for those of you who stuck around till this point, thanks for taking the time out of your day to read this, and see you next time!**

**(Updated: Jan. 11****th****, 2015:**

**Well, here's the edited fourth chapter guys! So, as you can see, the main change in Lyoko was that John did more than just sit there with Aelita while Ulrich took care of the Krab. Why? Because I realized that with John's character, he'd do more than just sit there and do nothing while his friend was facing off against an enemy. Therefore, I had him help Ulrich. Now, on to the reviews for the last edited chapter!**

**Anime PJ:**

Well, thanks for the compliment! And I'm glad that you like my writing enough to read any story that I post! It makes me feel good knowing that there are people like you out there!

As for Sissi getting punished… Well, let's just say that you'll have a lot to look forwards to in future chapters! And, as you can see, I'm trying to focus on this story until all my previous chapters are edited, and then I'll try to post a new one, before moving onto a different story.

***Michael*:**

Well, that's good to know, and I completely agree with the lack of advancement in the show. As for liking that chapter better after it was edited, well, that was another reason for updating them. Since my previous writing style clashes with my writing style now, and by going back through, I notice flaws that I made. As for your favorite stories, well, hopefully I'll get to editing and updating those soon, since they seem to be my most liked stories by my readers. And keeping character's personalities the same? Well, I do try my best.

**Anyways, I think that's about it for this edited chapter guys! So, thanks for taking the time out of your day to read this, and I hope to see you all next time!)**


	5. Chapter 5: Collision Course

**Chapter 5: Collision Course**

* * *

**Author's Note Part 1: Alright guys, here's the fifth chapter. Now, in this one, I'm going to ****_slightly_**** change some things in John's apartment, so make sure to take those into account. As for the rest of the chapter? Well, I'll work on it as I go. So, I'll just leave you to read it.**

* * *

**John POV:**

* * *

**_~Beep!~_**

**_~Beep!~_**

**_~Beep!~_**

I groan as I slam my hand down on the infernal device that wakes me up every weekday morning. I groggily open my eyes to see that I'm in my room. At my apartment. As I push myself up and throw my legs over the side of the bed, I rub at my eyes and take a look around. My room isn't exactly all-that. Looking in from the door, my bed is situated in the far left corner, queen size of course, and the pillows are a crisp white, while the sheets are a dark midnight blue, and the blanket is black. Next to the bed on the right side is a small nightstand that has a lamp, as well as my book on it. It's made of polished wood, and has a drawer in the side that has paper, pencils, and erasers for the stories that I write. Yes, I write stories. You got a problem with that? No? I didn't think so.

The walls of my apartment are a nice blue, that change to seem like a midnight blue when only the lamp is on. Covering the walls, and white ceiling, are posters of all sorts. All of which having something to do with the zombie apocalypse. Whether it's a meme, something to do with a zombie movie, something to do with a zombie game, or just zombies in general. In the middle of the ceiling is a lazily spinning fan that also doubles as a light source. Across the room from the bed is a dresser that holds all my clothes, and on top of it are a few figures from more zombie apocalypse themed movies and what-not. The dresser, like the nightstand, is made out of polished wood. The floor is covered by a soft, light grey, and there's a window that's situated on the wall that my bed is against, between the bed and the dresser. This window almost always has its blinds closed, simply because I want it like that.

Next to the dresser is a small closet that holds some personal stuff, and is locked via a combination lock that I haven't told to anyone. There's also another closet that's next to the nightstand that holds random stuff that I might need. These include towels, sheets, pillows, some air mattresses, and more. This is the closet that I stand in front of after I've woken myself up, and grab myself a towel for after I finish up in the bathroom. Which I then walk to down the hall to take a shower. The bathroom's walls and ceiling are both a crisp white, but made out of tiles. The bathroom has a toilet and sink, (obviously) as well as a bathtub, and a separate shower. Above the sink was a pair of closets that held other stuff such as first aid, soap, shampoo, deodorant, and so on. I quickly freshen up for the day, before dressing in my normal attire, and then walk downstairs to eat breakfast. As I take some waffles out of the microwave oven and start to eat, I think about the last Xana attack that happened a couple weeks ago. Boy, did my zombie apocalypse obsession help out in that one.

* * *

_*Flashback*_

I was currently in my room reading the newest book in the zombie apocalypse series that I was reading where it takes place in Europe. I was about to start on a new chapter, when my phone started to ring. I take a look at it, and notice that it's Jeremie's number. I answer the call, and mark my place in the book. "Hey Jeremie, what's up?" I ask, though I have a good feeling I know why he's calling me after only one day on vacation.

"John, Xana's attacked. He's created some kind of gas that could be _deadly_ if inhaled too much. I think that Jim and Sissi might still be at the school as well." Jeremie tells me. I immediately jump out of bed and open my private closet. Unlocking it with ease. I walk in, search around a little bit, and then come out holding four of the exact same item.

"Jeremie, I'll be at the school soon. I'm bringing a few things that will help us." I tell him as I grab a backpack and place the four objects inside. I quickly close the backpack, cut the call, and rush out of my house and off towards the school. A couple blocks away, I run into Ulrich and Yumi. "Hey guys. Jeremie contact you as well?" I ask them, getting nods in response. We quickly run through the gate into the courtyard and Ulrich speaks up.

"We'll cut through the boiler room! It's faster!" He exclaims. I'm about to speak up and tell them about Sissi and Jim, when we see a purple smoke floating around. We skid to a halt, and Yumi and Ulrich turn around.

"Through the park!" Yumi exclaims. Just as I'm about to bring out the items that will help us, we hear coughing come from the smoke. Jeremie comes staggering out, and Ulrich and Yumi each grab onto one of his arms, dragging him out of the smoke as he starts another coughing fit. I follow them for a few feet, before they place Jeremie on his back. Then he speaks up.

"Jim… and Sissi… Still inside. We have to find them." He tells us. Me and Ulrich nod at that.

"John and I will go." Ulrich responds as I reach into my backpack once more, before I have to reach out and grab onto Ulrich's wrist before he goes running off into the smoke. He turns to look back at me with confusion.

"If you wait just a minute, I can give you something that'll help us while we're there ten-fold." I tell him, before reaching into my backpack and grab two of the four items that I've been trying to grab for the past two minutes. When I take them out, Ulrich's eyes widen in realization, and confusion.

"You have gas masks?" He asks as I hand him one, slipping one onto my face at the same time.

"Yes. You can thank my zombie apocalypse obsession later. Right now, we need to head into the school to try and find those two. I'll take the extra two masks for Jim and Sissi. If you find them, call me on your cell. And if I find them, I'll call you and you can leave and head off to the factory to help out on Lyoko if you need to." I tell him. He nods his head in acceptance after slipping on the gas mask, and then takes off. I turn to Jeremie and Yumi, the latter helping the former to stand. "Good luck guys. We'll call you if we find them." I tell them, getting a nod from Yumi in response as Jeremie continues to cough up a storm. Then, I turn and take off after Ulrich. It takes a good fifteen minutes, but I finally get a call from the German teen. I answer the phone to hear his voice on the other end. Distorted by the gas mask he's wearing

"John? I found them. Their hiding in a storage closet on the girl's dorms floor." He tells me.

"Alright. I'll head over there now. I still have the extra gas masks, so just make sure they're fine until then." I tell him, starting off towards the girl's dorms. I hear his "okay" over the phone, before he cuts the call. I arrive at the storage closet that Ulrich is standing outside not five minutes later, nodding to him before I open the door as he goes running off. Most likely to help out on Lyoko. Then I walk into the storage closet, and close the door behind me. Inside said closet, Sissi and Jim look up at me in surprise, before I hand them each a gas mask. "You can thank me later, for now, put these on and let's get out of here." I tell them, getting nods in response. After they put them on, I check to make sure that they're fastened correctly, before opening the door and heading out. Jim and Sissi follow after me as we run out of the school, and then out of the smoke entirely. As we leave school grounds, we take off our gas masks and take a breath of fresh air.

"Thanks John. But, how did you get gas masks?" Jim asks. I just smile up at him in response.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that Jim. After all, in a few seconds, it'll be like none of this ever happened." I tell him.

"Now what's that supposed to mea-" Jim's cut off by the white bubble that spreads over him, and then me. Leaving me in blackness before I'm shaken awake by Jeremie to go make a mural of Jim. But this time, we make him a king.

_*End Flashback*_

* * *

By the time I'm done remembering the event, I've finished my breakfast, and grabbed my suitcase and backpack. The backpack held all my school supplies, while the suitcase was holding all my clothes and stuff that I would need while I lived at Kadic for the next week. I arrive at Kadic, drop my suitcase off in the room I share with Jeremie, and then head off to my first class of the day. Throughout the day, I make sure to focus on my classes, before I met up with Ulrich, Yumi and Odd when school is over. "Hey guys." I greet them, getting varied greetings in response. After meeting up, we head off, and end up running into the "Terrible trio".

"Hi, how are you?" Sissi asks us as we walk up to them along with Milly and Tamiya. I raise an eyebrow at that, seeing as Sissi _never_ acts nicely towards us. Probably something to do with Ulrich… As always.

"Well what do ya know? It's Ms. Conceded in person." Odd quips, only for Sissi to glower at him while I chuckle into my hand.

"No one asked you, creep." Sissi tells him, causing my eyes to roll.

_Aaaand, I was right._ I think as Sissi turns her attention to her usual victim.

"So, Ulrich, when are you going to stop being so shy and _finally_ tell me how you feel about me, huh?" She asks. In response, me and Ulrich just smirk.

"You're wrong, I'm not shy. Not at all, I'm just allergic to anyone who's stuck up." He tells her as he crosses his arms. "And in that category, you win hands down." He tells her with a slight glare, getting chuckles from everyone except Sissi, who shuts Nicholas and Herve up with a glare. Odd continues for Ulrich, talking to Milly and Tamiya.

"I'll bet she's been telling you how _nobody_ can resist her charm. Well she's right. Just take a look at the two _nobody's_ she's always hanging out with." He says with a smirk. In case it wasn't obvious from that comment, the band thing didn't go as planned. Turns out after Nicholas was actually accepted, Sissi didn't like that too much, so she pretty much told Nicholas to quit, thus breaking him off from the band, and causing us to go through the list of who auditioned again. Anyways, back to here and now. Nicholas tries to start forwards, only for Sissi to hold out an arm and stop him.

"Cool it." She tells him. Stopping him in his tracks and getting a chuckle from me and Ulrich.

"Wow, you outa be a _dog trainer_ when you grow up." Ulrich comments with a smirk.

"Yeah. Maybe you could have your own TV show like Caesar Millan, "The Dog Whisperer". Though, I think yours would be better off titled, "Stuck up Sissi Trains Unwilling Mutts." I offer with a grin, spreading my hands in the air like SpongeBob when he talks about "Imagination". This gains full blown laughter from the group as Sissi just glares.

"Laugh all you want. Show your friends how clever you are Ulrich dear. But I see the way you look at me while they're not around." Sissi tells Ulrich, before turning and walking away. Herve and Nicholas sending one last glare, before following her.

"I think she's hallucinating" Ulrich tells us, getting a chuckle from me.

"Yeah. That, or she's day dreaming about a non-existent future of you two." I tell him, still chuckling as I place a hand on his shoulder. Odd decides to speak up at that moment.

"Oh no." He says, slamming the palm of his hand into his forehead. "Speaking of dogs, I have to go and feed Kiwi." He tells us.

"I'll go with you." Ulrich offers. "Wanna come John? Yumi?" He asks us. We shake our heads in response.

"Nah. We'll see you later. We promised Jeremie we'd stop by and see him after class." I tell him while Yumi nods her head in agreement.

"Well alright. See you two later then." Ulrich says, waving as he walks away. We wave back, before walking back towards the male dorms. As we walk away, we stay silent. The usual awkward silence falling over us like it does whenever we're alone without anyone else from the group present. Honestly, in times like these, I want to just take the plunge and ask Yumi out on a date or something. But… After what's happened in the past… I'm not sure if I want to risk it. I'm not even sure if there'll be a time when I do. But, enough about my non-existent, problematic romantic life. We finally manage to get to mine and Jeremie's room without embarrassing myself, and make sure to knock before we walk in, seeing the blond sitting at his computer, working on yet another program.

"Yo Jeremie, we're here." I greet him.

"Hey John, Yumi. Come on in." he tells us without looking away from his computer. We walk into the room and close the door behind us, before walking over to be by his side. After all, we don't want to have the door wide open if we end up talking about Lyoko do we?

"So, what are you doing?" Yumi asks him, leaning against the computer desk as I sit down on my bed.

"I'm working on a new program. A sort of catastrophe alarm system. The idea is to rate non-natural disasters on a scale from one to ten. And once I've got it finished, I'm gonna get it onto every website, or information network if you like, and any time the system registers a disaster higher than five, it automatically informs me." He tells us. I smile at this.

"And then what?" Yumi asks.

"It's the best way for me to identify a possible Xana attack." He responds.

"Well, Einstein strikes again." I comment, getting up from my bed and placing a hand on Jeremie's shoulder. "Good job Jeremie. Always thinking one step ahead of the rest of us." I compliment him. "Anyways, how's the materialization for Aelita coming along?" I ask him.

"Pretty good actually. I'm still nowhere near done, but I've made good progress since we actually started." He tells me. I nod in response. There was a small part of me, no matter how much I tried to will it to go away, that held onto the hope that the Aelita in Lyoko… Is the same Aelita that I knew when I was a kid. I sit down on my bed, while Yumi sits on a desk, and we watch as Jeremie continues to work on his "Xana Alert" system. After a few more minutes, he speaks up. "Just one last adjustment and the program should be ready." He tells us. He types in a few more things, before pressing "Enter", and turning around to face us. "There we go. Now there's nothing left to do except wait until Xana rears his ugly head." He says, just before a news alert shows up on Jeremie's screen. I get off my bed as Yumi hops off the desk, and walk over to look at the news alert.

The news alert is about a large computer virus that has struck the country, and infected things such as communication, banking, subway systems, air traffic control, and the most dangerous one, two freight trains heading on a collision course. One of which holds highly toxic chemicals that if released into the air, could be deadly to those in the surrounding area. When I hear this, I facepalm hard enough for the smack to echo around the room, and then turn to face Jeremie. "You just _had_ to say something. Didn't you?" I ask him with a slight glare. He looks apologetically at me, before speaking up.

"You two try to reach Ulrich and Odd. I'll head off to the lab to contact Aelita, and prepare the transfers." He tells us. We nod in response, before we try to dial the two's cell phones. We get a few rings, before being sent to their voice mail.

"What's going on? One of them has to be able to answer." Yumi asks out loud. I sigh, and put my phone in my pocket.

"With our luck, they're doing something that could get them in trouble, and the ringing of our phones might get them caught." I tell her. She sighs in annoyance.

"Great. So now we have to go look for them." She says. I nod in response. We split up, and head off to find the duo. I check their room first just to make sure, and find no one there. Unfortunately, I'm not able to find them wherever I look until I check one room, and look out the window. When I do, I see the two of them sitting at a bench, talking between themselves. When I see this, I rush out of the room and dial Yumi as I run down the stairs two at a time.

"Did you find them?" She asks me.

"Yeah." I breathe out, turning the corner and starting down another set of stairs. "Next to the primary gym. They're sitting on a bench. I'm going down there now." I tell her.

"Alright. I'll meet you there." She says before cutting the call, and most likely running off to get to the bench that I told her about. When I arrive at said bench, Yumi arrives not five seconds later.

"Hey John, Yumi. You guys got here too late. You missed a _great_ show." Ulrich tells us with joy in his voice, before Odd speaks up.

"Sissi's got herself a boyfriend. Although, boy's not exactly the right word. Anyways, they're in love." He tells us, just before me and Yumi send dual glares at them.

"You know, as much as I pity the boy who's stuck with her, we've got bigger problems right now." I tell them as I cross my arms and give them a harsher glare.

"Yeah. We've been trying to reach you guys for fifteen _minutes_. Thanks a lot." She tells them sarcastically. This causes Odd to look away in shame, while Ulrich gasps in surprise.

"Xana's launched an attack." I explain. "There's two trains heading on a collision course. One of which, just _happens_ to be carrying toxic chemicals that could _kill people_ if they're released into the air." I tell him.

"Alright, we read you. It's urgent." Ulrich says, holding his hands up in order to placate us.

"You think? Next time, change your phones to vibrate instead of shutting them off all the way." I tell them, causing the two of them to flinch. But before anything else can be said, we hear Jim's voice call out across the courtyard.

"Hey! You there!" He yells out, making all of us turn in his direction. The sight that greets us is not a welcoming one. Jim is walking towards us with Sissi at his side. And in his arms… is Kiwi.

"Oh great." I mutter, facepalming as Odd jumps off the bench and starts panicking. As Jim starts to berate Odd about bringing Kiwi into school, I turn to Ulrich. "Don't tell me that the "boy" you two were talking about earlier was Kiwi." I grumble. Ulrich nodding his head is enough of an answer for me to facepalm again. As Jim tugs Odd to the principal, Sissi walks over to us and smiles smugly.

"You're an even worse pain in the neck than I thought." Ulrich tells her. Sissi just winks at him in response, before turning around and walking away with a smug smile. "How could she _do_ such a thing?" Ulrich growls out. Yumi just turns to look at him.

"She got her revenge. But we can't worry about that right now, there's no time. Come on," She begins, turning and starting to walk off towards the entrance to the sewers. "There are too many lives at stake." She tells him as the two of us rush to catch up with her. We enter through forest entrance, and then skateboard to the manhole cover on the bridge. We exit, slide down the ropes to the elevator, and then take said elevator to the computer room. When we enter, Jeremie is at the super-computer.

"Hey, where's Odd?" he asks us when he notices the spikey, blond haired teen not with us.

"He's in the principal's office." Yumi tells him.

"Yeah. Him and Ulrich decided to prank Sissi earlier. Turns out, she didn't think it was funny and went blabbing about Kiwi to Jim." I tell him. He sighs, before turning back to the screen.

"Okay you three. Get ready for immediate departure." He tells us. We nod, before heading back to the elevator and taking it to the scanner level. We quickly enter the scanners, and Jeremie starts up the procedure. The familiar feeling of being stretched between two far away points hits, before everything turns black.

* * *

When the black fades away and we're virtualized into the desert sector, Ulrich and Yumi land in a crouch, while I do the same as last time and roll with the landing. But this time, as I get into a kneeling position, sling my sniper from off my back, and aim around. Just in case Xana had a welcoming committee ready for us. Luckily, that's not the case, and I can't see any of Cana's monsters in sight. "Clear." I announce to the others, before standing up and slinging the sniper onto my back again.

"Everything's cool Jeremie. The transfer was successful, no problem. And Aelita's here as well." Yumi announces to our friend.

"Okay, great. No monsters in sight." Jeremie tells us, even though I'd looked around and checked myself. Though, I guess that you can't always trust your eyes, so it's nice to have someone else who has a 100% chance of being right. In response to his announcement, we nod in acknowledgment, before heading off towards Aelita.

"Any news from Odd?" Ulrich asks as we head towards her.

"No. Nothing yet." Jeremie tells us. I sigh at that, just before we reach Aelita.

"Alright. I guess we'd better assume that we'll have to do this without him then." I tell the others. Getting nods in response.

"I know which direction the tower's in. Follow me." Aelita tells us. We nod at her to lead the way, and she turns around and runs off, the three of us close behind her. A few minutes later, Aelita stops running, and points at where the tower is apparently located. "The tower is there." She tells us. Sure enough, the activated tower isn't that far away. I look around and think about how we haven't run into any enemies yet. Apparently, Yumi thinks the same thing.

"That's too easy." She says. I nod in response with Ulrich.

"Yeah. My guess? Xana trap. There's no way he'd just let us waltz up to the tower and de-activate it without any questions asked." I agree.

"Hey Jeremie. Do you see _anything_ on your screen?" Ulrich asks.

"No, nothing. Not even a single monster." He tells us. I continue to look around.

"Do you think Xana's found a way to cloak them from the sensors on the computer?" I ask, even though I'd find that hard to believe since Jeremie had installed a program to kick out Xana from the super computer if he tried to take it over after our first encounter with the electro-kinetic virus. The others shake their heads at that. "Alright. But we'd better move forwards with more caution. The last thing we need is to rush forwards, and run right into a Xana attack when we're not expecting it." I tell them. The others nod in agreement, before we start forwards. After a minute, Jeremie's voice is heard again.

"Alert! You've got four monsters en route to your position!" He exclaims. I stop and place out a hand to stop Yumi, while Ulrich does the same for Aelita. We take a look around, Yumi readying her fan, Ulrich unsheathing his katana, and me unslinging my sniper rifle from off my back, before holding it diagonally across my body with the barrel pointing at the ground on my left side.

"Where are they? I don't see any of them." Ulrich says, just before we're all hit by a laser blast each. Ulrich manages to dodge a second shot that's fired at him, and we turn in the direction it came from. When we do, we see four Bloxx. We get ready to fight, and one of them walks forwards a bit, shooting a blast at Ulrich. He easily deflects it with his katana, before the other Bloxx start shooting as well. Yumi tries to throw her fan at one, but it leans to the side and dodges it. As we continue to take hits, Jeremie's voice is heard again.

"John, Yumi, Ulrich! Get out of there! You're losing too many life points!" He exclaims.

"Good idea. Only how do you suggest we do it? Sprout wings, huh?" Ulrich asks, deflecting more shots. There's silence for a moment, which I take as Jeremie trying to find a way.

"There are a lot of rocks on your right. Try and lose them in there." He tells us. The Bloxx begin closing in, and Ulrich speaks up.

"John. Yumi. Take Aelita with you to the rocks. I'll handle them." He tells us.

"But, Ulrich-" I'm cut off by the brunette in question.

"Don't argue, just run!" He exclaims, before triplicating himself, and getting ready to fight. "Go!" He yells at us when we don't move. This time, we head off towards the rocks like he tells us to. One of the Bloxx tries to take pot shots at us as we run, but one of the Ulrich's quickly takes care of it. Though he loses his two copies in the process, meaning that it was the real one. Finally, we make it to the rocks, but I think about Ulrich facing the Bloxx alone, and turn to face the other two.

"I've got an idea. You two continue on. I'm gonna stay here and provide backup if Ulrich needs it." I tell them. They nod in response, though they each do so with reluctance, before they continue running towards the tower. As they do that, I start climbing one of the rocks to get a better vantage point. By the time I get to the top, Ulrich's almost at the rock field's edge. He quickly turns, and dodges another shot as it comes at him. I ready my sniper as he proceeds to take out two more Bloxx, before the final one readies it's laser. I quickly aim my sniper, and

_**~KRA-KSH!~**_

Take the shot. Unfortunately, while I manage to take out the Bloxx, Ulrich is hit and frozen, before the ice cracks, shatters, and leaves Ulrich to be de-virtualized. "Yes!" I exclaim in triumph as I fist pump at my success in destroying one of Xana's monsters. But my victory is short lived as I feel a hit from behind, almost as if I'd been hit by a truck, and I'm de-virtualized myself. The only thing that I can see being blackness.

* * *

My scanner opens to show Ulrich making his way out of his own scanner, as Odd steps into the third. "Make sure you help them out in there Odd." I tell him, getting a thumbs up in response before the scanner doors close. Me and Ulrich make our way up to the super-computer room. And stand by Jeremie as the events on Lyoko continue. Unfortunately, Yumi is de-virtualized herself by a Mega-Tank as she protects Aelita from the shot, and Odd is too far away to help out. A minute later, the elevator doors open to show Yumi leaning against the wall.

"Welcome back to earth Yumi." Jeremie greets. She makes her way over to us before speaking up.

"I'm sorry, I did all that I could." She tells us. I just smile in her direction.

"Ah, don't worry about it. You protected Aelita. And besides, I'm guessing that bastard is the one that de-virtualized me as well." I tell her, before turning back to the screen and missing the slight blush that reaches my own. Then, as we watch the screen, it shows that Aelita is going to face the Mega-Tank.

"Aelita, what are you doing?!" I exclaim. My thought process is evidently shared.

"Get out of there now!" Ulrich yells out. But Aelita just uses her powers on Lyoko… To make the Mega-Tank miss her and get pre-occupied by Odd.

"Yes!" I exclaim with Ulrich as Yumi sighs with relief.

"I was sure she would do that." Jeremie tells us with a smirk. I hold up my hands.

"Alright, alright. Don't underestimate Aelita. We get it." I tell him. But then I notice something. "No! The Mega-Tank is aiming for Aelita instead of Odd!" I exclaim. The others notice as well. We watch as the Mega-tank launches its attack… and Odd jumps in the way. Succeeding in protecting Aelita from the shot. But unlike Yumi, he still has enough life points to stay on Lyoko. So he stays around with enough time to launch a counter attack, and destroy the Mega-Tank. We watch both screens as the two trains close in on each other by the second, and Aelita ascends the tower. "Come on… Come on…" I mutter, crossing my fingers. Luckily, Aelita enters the code just _seconds_ before the trains hit. We all let out a sigh of relief at this.

"Return to the past now." Jeremie declares as the white bubble spreads out over us, before everything turns black.

* * *

Later on in the day, after the return, the entire group hides behind a bush by the tool shed on campus. We watch as Sissi makes her way towards said shed, and opens the door to it with a smile. That smile quickly disappears though, as Herve is the one to come out instead of Ulrich, and causes them both to fall to the ground. As the glasses wearing boy leans in for a kiss, I take a picture, along with Odd, of the event. "We're gonna give Tamiya and Milly a real scoop. Guess who's gonna make the front page of the next school paper." Ulrich tells us as Odd hands him one of the pictures. We all share a laugh at this, and it only heightens in volume when we see that blush of embarrassment that Sissi has at her current situation. A few seconds later, we watch as Sissi roughly shoves Herve off of her, and goes stalking off in anger and embarrassment, the boy following quickly behind her in confusion.

"That's really such a shame. We've just seen the beginning, and the end, of a beautiful romance." Yumi says sarcastically, getting chuckles from the rest of us as I snap a picture of the two stalking off, before turning to meet Yumi's eyes. At this, we both share a smile, as well as a light blush.

_You know…_ I think, as we all make our way back to the school to hand Milly and Tamiya the pictures, sneaking a glance at Yumi along the way. _Maybe… Maybe I _will_ take a risk at some point…_

* * *

**AN: Ok. So, that's the fifth chapter done. Now, like I said last time. Even though this is the fifth episode and not the fourth, that doesn't mean that the fourth one isn't happening. Instead, it's going to happen at a later date in this series. Don't worry, I have a method to my madness.**

**_~Insert Evil Laughter~_**

***Ehem* Anyways, yes. I gave you all a little view into John's living arrangements. Why? I just figured I might as well since I mentioned the apartment a couple times now, and I'm sure some of you were wondering about it. So therefore, it showed up a little in this chapter.**

**Now, after looking ahead at a few of the future episodes in Code Lyoko, I've realized that because Yumi is paired with John and not Ulrich, some of said episodes will have to be ****_drastically _****changed, and I'll most likely have to come up with some alternate story twist. That, or make it so that the certain event in the episode doesn't happen, and the Xana attack takes place as if it were a normal day. So you should all know that when I reach that point, because it will most likely take a bit longer for those chapters to come out due to the need for me to think up an original problem instead of using the one present in the episode.**

**Okay, another warning to give people. I'm starting eleventh grade in a few weeks. So for those of you interested in this story, and possibly my other ones, you guys need to know that when it reaches that point, the update times for my stories will most likely drop ****_dramatically_****. Instead of taking two or three days like it has been to get a chapter out, it could take a week or two. So if it slows down, don't worry. I'm not dead, school will just take up some of my time.**

**Well, thanks for those of you who took the time out of your day to read this far, and see you next time!**

**(Updated: Jan. 12****th****, 2015:**

**Well guys, not many changes this chapter besides a few details for John's room, as well as a few smaller details getting added/changed. So, the only thing that I really need to go over are the reviews that I've gotten so far:**

***Michael*:**

Yeah, there was really only one big change, and that was when John actually helped Ulrich with the Krab, instead of sitting back and doing nothing. There were a few other smaller changes though. As for the characters, well, it's nice to see that you like how it is so far, as well as your like for other fanfictions. I hope that I'll be able to keep you entertained through this story!

**Anime PJ:**

Even this small compliment is a nice thing to read!

**Well, that's about it for now. I thank you all for taking the time out of your day to read this, and hope to see you next time!)**


	6. Chapter 6: Aliens Vs Lyoko Warriors

**Chapter 6: Aliens vs. Lyoko Warriors**

* * *

**Author's Note Part 1: Alright, so for this chapter, a few things are gonna be changed from the original episode. Why? Because after watching it and thinking about what my character brings to this story I thought, "Why the hell not?" So read on, and you'll figure out just ****_what_**** I changed.**

* * *

**3****rd**** Person POV:**

* * *

"Totally, ridiculous." Jeremie says as he shakes his head, commenting on the alien movie that him and the group had watched with the rest of the school just moments ago. However, his sentiment isn't shared by the others in the group.

"Woah, that was great." Ulrich says, staring at the screen with a small smile.

"Eh, I thought the special effects were pretty good. But, well, it wasn't scary enough." Odd tells the group. Getting a smile from Yumi, and a scoff from John.

"You're kidding. How come your teeth were chattering? 'Cause of the special effects?" Yumi asks him sarcastically, getting chuckles from the rest of the group.

"As good as this movie was, I still like the zombie apocalypse ones better." John says, shrugging his shoulders as the lights turn on to show the principal standing on the stage.

"Students, your attention please. I would like you all to give a warm welcome to the director of the film you've all just seen. And which we all found very, _interesting._ And, here he is now. James Finson, who is honoring us with his presence today to discuss his work, in the fascinating world of cinema." He introduces, clapping as he moves away from the mic so that the mentioned Finson can walk up to it. He doesn't look like your stereotypical director, no beard, black hair, though he is wearing a dark blue vest. He picks up the mic and gives one of those fake smiles you see a lot in life. The kind that the person you're talking to gives you when they don't really mean it.

"That's right, and I'm also here to look for locations to shoot for my new film. In fact, I've heard there's an old factory around here that no one uses anymore, that I'm very interested in." He announces to the audience. Most of them mutter amongst themselves about how great that is, including the small group. They only stop thinking it's great when they hear the last part about the factory.

"A factory?" Jeremie asks quietly with wide eyes, turning to the others.

"Shit. You don't think he means _our_ factory? Do you?" John hisses so as not to be overheard by the other students sitting around them.

"What other factory _could_ he be talking about?" Ulrich asks him. The group continues to listen as Finson tells them about what it's like being a director and what-not, and then announces that he'll be signing autographs in the cafeteria. As everyone else rushes out of the gymnasium after him in order to get his autograph, the Lyoko group slowly makes their way to right outside the lunch room in question.

"If this Finson guy finds out about our super-computer, we're in trouble." Jeremie tells the others as they group up in front of the cafeteria.

"And that means we absolutely have to keep him away from it." Yumi continues for him, John nodding in agreement as he leans against the wall of the cafeteria with his arms crossed.

"Yeah, sure we do. But how do we do that?" Odd asks. Ulrich seems to think about that for a minute, before looking up with at them with a smirk.

"Nothing to worry about. I've got an idea." He tells them, before he grabs Yumi by her wrist, much to John's displeasure, and tells her his idea while he walks in, leaving the other three to stand there and watch them through one of the windows.

"How come whenever Ulrich says not to worry, I get worried? And I mean, _worried_." Odd asks them, shaking his head. John doesn't answer and just continues to look in, an unpleasant feeling present in his chest seeing Ulrich and Yumi together, even though it was clear they were nothing but friends. The group continues to look on as Yumi and Ulrich talk to Finson, the unpleasant feeling getting a bit worse when he sees Finson say something to them that makes them both blush. Although, it fades away as Ulrich seems to stammer and deny whatever it was the director said. After a couple minutes, the two move and stand off to the side as Finson finishes signing autographs. Once he's done, he talks to them, before the three of them head off. Ulrich and Yumi signaling the others to follow them. The three boys look between themselves, before nodding in agreement. A few minutes later, the three of them arrive at the factory right behind Finson and the other two people from their group.

"Fantastic. This factory's even better than I thought." Finson announces as he looks around said factory, much to John's chagrin as he realizes that this might be harder than they expected.

"Yeah… It _looks_ alright. The trouble is…" Ulrich trails off as he tries to think of something, so Yumi steps in.

"It's falling apart. We'd better hope that the ceiling doesn't just fall onto us." She tells Finson, trying to get him to leave due to possible danger. But it has the opposite effect that the Lyoko group wants.

"That's great. I love a dangerous set. It's what I always look for. An actor's always better under pressure." He tells them, before walking away and leaving the two on the ground to share a glance, and John to groan in annoyance.

"Mr. Finson, you'd better watch out for your equipment." Yumi tells him as they walk behind him.

"Yeah, this place is _crawling_ with rats." Ulrich continues, the two continuing to try and get him to leave even after he seems to not care about danger.

"Rats?" He asks, and the three watching from above share a smile at the possibility that he'll leave due to infestation instead of danger, thinking that the two below had gotten Finson to re-think filming there, only for their smiles to slip off their faces as Finson continues. "That's what I need. I have a few scenes to shoot with rats in them." He says.

"Conclusion. Never trust Ulrich when he says there's nothing to worry about." Odd tells them.

"Yeah. He tried to gross him out, and instead, he's even more excited." Jeremie says.

"Let's just hope that Yumi can change this around in our favor." John tells them with a sigh, before the trio continues to listen in on the other three walking down below.

"Well, yeah it's a great set. Too bad about all that uranium they stored here for years and years." Ulrich tells Finson as they stop in front of _the_ elevator.

"Yeah, maybe one day, this place won't be radioactive anymore." Yumi adds, trying her best to get Finson away from the elevator, and the possibility of what could happen should he become _too_ interested in it.

"Mm-hm. Say, do you two know where this freight elevator leads to?" He asks them, completely disregarding their warning about radioactivity, and making the three up top to silently panic.

"Uh," The two on the ground share a glance, before turning back to Finson. "Oh, that thing?" Yumi asks him in slight nervousness as Ulrich rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. "It stopped working ages ago." She tells him, hoping that would be enough to divert him away from the elevator.

"Yeah. Although, they say when it _was_ working, it lead to-" Whatever lie Ulrich was about to tell the director is cut off as the sound of clanking metal comes from above, along with the sound of someone moaning.

"What was that noise?" Finson asks the two as he looks around the factory in order to see what made the sound.

"That noise? Oh, that's nothing. Nothing at all." Ulrich tells him as up above, Jeremie and John are covering Odd's mouth. The sound coming from him walking into a metal pipe, and then moaning in pain. But Yumi steps in, seeing this as a perfect opportunity to try and get Finson to leave… _Again_.

"Well, there _is_ this rumor that the factory is haunted. But we don't believe a word of that." Yumi tells him.

"Yeah. Although-" Again, Finson just cuts Ulrich off with a laugh.

"This just keeps getting better and better than I thought." He declares. "And you two seem to know every nook and cranny of this place. How'd you two like to be technical advisors on my crew?" He asks. When he does, the three watching above smile and cross their fingers.

"Yes say yes say yes!" Odd whisper yells to himself.

"Are you serious?" Yumi asks him with a smile.

"Of course I am." Finson tells them.

"Well, it would be a great honor sir." Ulrich tells him. When he says this, the two blond boys above start celebrating, only for John to put his hand over their mouths to shut them up. Going "Shhh!" to get the point across. "But, the only problem is that the principal would _never_ let us miss our classes once the weekend is over." Ulrich continues. The three above deflating a little once they realize that he's right.

"Yeah. And I'd have to talk to my parents about this as well." Yumi continues.

"Let me handle the principal and your parents." Finson tells them with a smile.

* * *

"Why didn't we think of this sooner?" John groans out, placing his head in his hands as he sits on his bed. The four boys of the group currently sitting in John and Jeremie's room. At his announcement, the others look at him in confusion.

"What are you talking about?" Ulrich asks, making John looks up at him.

"Sissi wants a part in Finson's movie. You and Yumi need to get out of class. Sissi is the principal's daughter. She can, and did, easily talk Finson and the principal into letting you guys skip out on classes so that she can have a part in his movie." John explains. The others think about it, and then groan when they realize he's right and they could have just talked to her about that to begin with. But then, Odd stops and grins at them.

"Ah, Ulrich and Sissi, working on a film together. This could be the beginning of a beautiful romance." He says, and then sends a smirk at John. "Or will it be Ulrich and Yumi?" At that, Odd takes great pleasure in the way John stiffens, before he regrets it as John grabs him by the back of his shirt and starts to drag him away.

"Hey Odd. Can I talk to you for a minute?" He asks with a dark smile that sends chills down the blond teen's back.

"No, wait! You know I didn't mean it! Noooo!" Odd cries out comically, with a slight trace of nervousness, as John drags him out of the room. Ulrich and Jeremie look on as the door closes, feeling a bit bad for the blond haired boy, before turning back to one another and talking about how what Ulrich _really_ needs to do is keep everyone away from the lab. While this happens, John talks to Odd outside of the room. "You just _love_ teasing me about that. Don't you?" He asks the blond teen with a glare. The teen in question smirks and shrugs in response. Getting a punch in the shoulder for it.

"Ouch!" Odd yelps out in pain as Ulrich walks out of Jeremie and John's room. He shakes his head at this.

"Odd, when will you learn not to tease John about this kind of thing?" He asks.

"I'd say around the same time he stops eating four trays of food for each meal." Jeremie says from within the room. The group shares a chuckle at that, besides the still annoyed John, before Ulrich and Odd head off to their room so that Ulrich can pack. Turns out whoever works on the movie with Finson ends up sleeping on set as well. While they go off to do that, John says good-bye to Jeremie, before taking his suitcase, and heading home due to it being Friday. When he arrives, he goes to his room and throws his suitcase on his bed, deciding to unpack later. Then he exits the room, and walks down the hall to the living room. Said living room is relatively modest. The floor was covered by a maroon rug, and in the middle, there was a coffee table. Surrounding the coffee table on three sides were couches. On the wall on that didn't have a couch, also conveniently the side that was opposite the entrance to the apartment, was a flat screen TV.

Underneath said TV there were cabinets that held multiple DVD's, CD's, video games, as well as the game systems for said video games, and controllers for the game systems. When entering through the front door, to the right of the room was a space that held a rather large desk with a lamp, and a multitude of writing materials. On the opposite wall of the desk there were a few more zombie apocalypse posters. On the ceiling of the living room was another fan that doubled as a light source that was spinning lazily, much like the one in John's bedroom. The walls were a slight tan color, and the ceiling was a crisp white, much like most others in the house. John walks over to the cabinets, pops in a game into one of the systems, turns on the TV, and spends a few hours just messing around on said video game. After that, he then goes on to order some dinner. He decides to order from Pizza Hut, and get a couple boxes of cheesy breadsticks, and a small stuffed crust cheese pizza. This way, he'll have something left over for lunch or dinner tomorrow. When it arrives, he pays the delivery guy, gives him a nice tip, and then proceeds to sit down in the living room and eat. As he does this, he thinks about the last Xana attack. One that both him and Yumi were victims of.

* * *

_*Flashback*_

John, Yumi and Aelita are currently running through the ice region of Lyoko, and a few seconds later, Jeremie's voice can be heard. "Thirty degrees north!" He exclaims. They continue running in the direction that he tells them to go, before he speaks up again. "You should be able to see it by now."

"No kidding. Sticks out like a sore thumb." Yumi replies. Talking about the giant white tower that they were running towards. When they're finally within a few yards of it, and they slow down.

"I'm not liking this. There's nothing happening here, and we didn't run into _one_ monster on the way here." John declares, looking around the immediate area warily.

"Well then, be careful. You never know." Jeremie tells them. Yumi and John nod, and gesture for Aelita to enter the tower. She does so, and the two of them stand guard outside. The awkward silence descending _once again._ The only difference this time is that it's broken by a random sound. They start glancing around, until they see two glowing orange and red _things_ coming at them. The two scream, although Yumi's is just a regular scream, while John's is cut off.

"Fuuuu-!" And then everything goes black for them.

_Some Time Later:_

"Uggg." John groans out as he wakes up from the unconscious state he'd been sent into. "Did anybody get the number of the truck that hit me?" He asks, only for Odd to speak up.

"Not exactly. Sorry, but we don't really have a lot of time to explain. We've kind of got to deactivate a tower." He tells him. Then Aelita starts talking.

"Jeremie's not responding. I have a bad feeling that something's wrong." She tells them

"So then he's all alone with the other ones." Ulrich says, confusing John and Yumi completely. "If they destroy all the scanners, it's all over." He says. At this, Yumi speaks up.

"Other ones? Other what's? Who wants to wreck the scanner?" She asks. Odd is the one to respond.

"The other… You. And the other John as well." He tells them. And then explains that Xana had created other versions of the two of them to get the others onto Lyoko, and then destroy the scanners so that if they died in Lyoko, they were gone for good.

"But then, what if something's happened to Jeremie, and we don't get back there in time?" Yumi asks.

"Yeah, this is serious guys. At least one of us should go back to earth right away. It's not like we have much time. And if Xana _does_ manage to take out all the scanners, we won't _have_ any time." John tells them.

"Alright then, I'll go." Ulrich tells them. But Yumi stops him.

"No. It's better if me and John go. We don't know exactly how many life points we have left Ulrich. If we only have five or ten, it'll only take one good hit and we're out. We wouldn't be of much use to the rest if that's the case." She tells him.

"She right. And besides, I'm not sure about her, but I have a little matter to settle with me, myself and I." John tells Ulrich, cracking his knuckles as he does so.

"Alright. You guys go ahead. But first, you're gonna have to de-virtualize yourself. The only question is how?" Ulrich asks them. John scoffs as Yumi speaks up.

"You're armed. Aren't you?" She asks, sending a glance at his katana. He nods, and then proceeds to de-virtualize Yumi. As he turns to John, the raven haired teen smirks.

"Make sure to give me some time to let out some frustration. Who knows _what_ my copy has done at school that could give me a bad reputation." John says. Ulrich just shakes his head with a frown.

"You _don't_ want to know. You _really_ don't." He tells John, before de-virtualizing him. When the scanner opens, it shows Xana-Yumi fighting Yumi, while Xana-John provides backup.

"Hey! Xana-me!" John shouts out. At this, Xana-John turns to face his original counterpart. "I've got a bone to pick with you." He tells his counterpart as he steps out of the scanner cracking his knuckles. The two get ready to face off, and then rush each other. Xana-John tries to throw a punch at John, but he ducks under it, and then grabs the offending limb, before flipping the copy over his shoulder. After doing so, he turns around to face the copy. Getting ready in case it attacks again. As this is going on, Xana-Yumi tries to take care of Yumi, only for Jeremie to push it away towards a hole in the middle of the room. Unfortunately, it doesn't work out as planned, and Xana-Yumi manages to grab onto the edge, before pulling itself up and grabbing Jeremie. Unfortunately, Yumi can't get up to help due to an injury and tries to crawl towards them.

While this is happening, Xana-John gets back up, and tries to throw multiple punches at John. The original teen dodges them all, actually moving to the side and elbowing his copy in the back one time. This causes his copy to go stumbling towards Xana-Yumi, who's holding Jeremie as if it was going to throw him into the hole as Xana-John turns around to face an angry John. "Xana…" He mutters angrily, before lifting his leg up with his foot aiming at his Xana-clone. "This… Is… Sparta!" He exclaims, launching a kick that connects with Xana-John's stomach, and sends him crashing into Xana-Yumi. The force causes Xana-Yumi to fall forwards with Xana-John right behind it, while dropping Jeremie onto the other side of the hole. Safe from harm.

"Nooooo!" The trio hears the two Xana-clones cry out in distorted voices of the original teens as they fall to their doom. John just smirks at this.

"Heh. I finally got to use it in real life." He mutters, before he walks over to Yumi and helps her stand. "Well, looks like we've proven once again that we're better than Xana." He says with a smile. She copies the smile, before they walk over to Jeremie as he pushes himself to his feet.

"Thanks _~Pant~_ John." He thanks the raven haired teen, placing his hands on his knees in order to keep himself from falling to the ground.

"No problem Jeremie. Although, I have to ask. Did _nothing_ the two copies do alert you to the fact that they were… Well, copies?" He asks the blond teen. Jeremie sputters a bit as he glances at Yumi, and then John. John thinks about that for a second, before his eye twitches. "Jeremie… What happened?" He asks in a tone that he has an idea as to what did, and was quite annoyed. At this, the blond haired teen starts sweating bullets as he gives a nervous smile accompanied by a nervous smile. But before he can answer his friend and be pummeled into a pulp, the familiar white dome spreads out and transports them back to the past.

_*End Flashback*_

* * *

John frowns slightly at that memory. Partially because he was pissed that he was actually beaten by Xana at the beginning, but also because after he had been told what happened between Xana-Yumi and Jeremie, he hadn't exactly been ecstatic about that and, let's just say that Xana would get his soon enough for that, as well as what he'd made Xana-John do while the original was away. Let's just say that it's a good thing that the Xana-copies didn't get the original's memories, because otherwise it's likely that Xana would be using the items in John's personal closet in the opposite way that they were meant. Just as John's finished placing the leftover pizza and breadsticks into Ziploc bags, and starts to put those in the fridge, he gets a call from Jeremie. He answers it with a frown present on his face, the fact that Jeremie is calling at this hour never boding well. "Hey Jeremie. What's going on?" He asks.

"Xana's launched another attack. This time it's at the factory. I couldn't hear much over the speakers after Ulrich called, but it sounds like Xana's taken control of something and sent it after him and Yumi. Or some_things_." He tells the raven haired teen over the line. John thinks about it for a second, before speaking again.

"Alright. I'll meet you and Odd there. I'm also gonna bring some things that'll hopefully help out." He tells Jeremie, before cutting the line, and running into his room. After arriving, he unlocks his private closet and, if this were a TV show, the screen would fade to black as he reaches into it to grab the things he was talking about. "These should help." John's voice can be heard saying.

* * *

The two blond haired teens and one raven haired teen manage to make it past the guard on duty, who was actually sleeping, and make it down into the boiler room of the factory. Although John takes into account the five large trucks with smashed open backs that are parked on the bridge. Although, it looks like they were ripped open from the _inside_. He also takes into account the fact that all the people working on the movie are stuck to the walls via some kind of goo that closely resembles the kind from the alien movie the school had watched that afternoon. Even Sissi was with them. Though, she seemed to have either fallen back to sleep, or fainted. John was inclined to believe the latter with her personality. "I'll see if I can't find Ulrich, and Yumi." John tells the other two boys. "Make sure you guys look out for whatever it is that caused all this. I'm pretty sure it was more than one. If the ripped open trucks outside are any give away." He tells them, gesturing in the general area of the trucks in question. He gets nods in response to his warning as the boys pick up a few discarded pipes to use if they need to. Then, the three separate. Jeremie and Odd head off to the computer lab, while John goes off to find the two teens stuck somewhere else in the factory.

As John makes his way through the sewer parts of the factory, he hears a sound from up ahead. But this sound isn't the kind he'd expect. It isn't the sound of running water, or even of people talking about what's happened in the factory. No. This was a sound of hissing, mixed with some type of chattering. When John hears it, he slows down, before stopping at the edge of a corner. He slowly peeks around said corner, and what he sees makes his eyes widen. There, sniffing around on four legs is what appears to be a trio of some kind of aliens. They are completely green, have tendrils on top of their heads as if it were hair, and one of the trio shows that they are capable of standing atop their hind legs to move around as well. When John sees this, he quietly moves backwards along the wall a few steps, and reaches for his side.

When he pulls his hand away, it's holding a metal device that looks as if it's folded in on itself, and has a string attached to it. With the click of a button, the device opens up and is revealed to be a foldable crossbow. First, the two ends that were folded pop out at the same time, stretching the string. Then, the middle piece extends slightly, while at the same time on the bottom, a trigger pops out. When it's opened up all the way, John takes a _clip_ of arrows out of the pouch on his opposite side, and clicks it into place on said crossbow. Then, he steels his nerves, gets a determined face, and steps around the corner. As soon as he does this, the alien things see him, and let out their hissing, chattering sounds. But one shot from the crossbow with a metal arrow, and one of the three of them are silenced for good by an arrow to its head. When they realize that the human they're facing is armed and dangerous, the other two alien things rush him together. When this happens, John realizes that he won't be able to shoot them as they're closing in, and drops his crossbow to the ground while he reaches to his side again. Just as one of the aliens leaps at him with its claws at the ready…

**_~Squelch!~_**

It's stabbed through one of its non-existent eyes by a bowie knife courtesy of John. The raven haired teen quickly dis-lodges the knife, and turns to face the final alien. Crouching slightly in preparation. Unfortunately, said alien was able to reach him while he was pre-occupied by the second one, and he's not as prepared as he would have liked as it rakes its claws down his left arm. John grunts in pain, before the alien hooks an arm around him, and tosses him towards the first alien that he "killed", causing the teen to lose his bowie knife in the process as it goes clattering away from him across the ground. As the final alien gets ready to pounce on him, John looks to his side for any type of weapon, and notices the arrow sticking out of the first alien. The final alien leaps for John, and he quickly grabs the arrow, before pulling it free and in the same motion twists it so that it stabs the final alien through its head. As the alien goes limp on top of him, John takes a few breaths, before pushing the alien off him. As he does this, he feels that the alien is actually made of a soft kind of substance, but has what feels like metal components beneath it. Meaning that it's a robot. Meaning that all the others are robots as well.

John tries to push himself up using both his hands, but hisses when he feels a pain in his left arm. He looks down to see that the claw marks that the alien robot gave him have begun to bleed, so he takes off his jacket, before ripping the sleeves off his T-shirt and using them as makeshift bandages. Then, he puts his jacket back on, picks up his crossbow and bowie knife, and heads off into the factory to continue looking for the two teens that are somewhere within it's walls. As he makes his way through, he runs into a few more of the alien robots. Usually, they were traveling alone, and he could take them out with a simple arrow to the head. However, when they were traveling in groups, he had to take them out separately, while attempting to not alarm the others. He ends up getting more cuts from claws that he has to use the bottoms of his jeans to bandage, and a few bruises as well from encounters with groups that weren't so easy to take care of. But luckily, none of his wounds were life threatening. Finally, as he passes another hallway, he looks down it and sees the two teens that he's searching for. Although they're stuck to the far wall with the same kind of goo as the employees and Sissi.

"Yumi, Ulrich!" He exclaims in a slightly quiet voice, running down the hallway towards the duo.

"John!" Ulrich exclaims in relief. John just smirks as he pulls his bowie knife out of its sheath and holds it up to reflect the little amount of light in the hallway.

"Whatever you do… Don't… Move… A muscle." He tells them in fake dead-seriousness. Ulrich rolls his eyes as Yumi gives off a fake laugh.

"Ha-ha, very funny." She comments as John proceeds to cut them down from the wall. "But thank you all the same John." She thanks him.

"N-No problem Yumi." John manages to stutter out, blushing slightly at the praise, seeing as this moment was almost like those kinds that you see in every movie where the main hero saves the girl, and then they go off to live with each other… Yeah right, like that would happen for him. Once he's done cutting them down from the wall, John hears the tell-tale hissing and chattering sound come from down the hall.

"Shit!" he mutters to himself, clipping in another… _Clip_, of arrows into his crossbow, just as one of the aliens shows up down the hall. It turns to look at the trio, just in time to get an arrow to the head and fall to the ground deactivated. "Come on!" John exclaims, running forwards and grabbing the arrow from the downed robot alien as he passes, the two other teens close behind him. Finally, they make it to a smaller room, and close the door. Then, they open another door, go through it, close _that one_, and begin to pile random objects against it, along with other doors that lead into their hiding space. Then they take the leftover objects around the room, and create a smaller barricade in a semi-circle protecting them from the doors in case the aliens manage to get through. John takes out his phone, and dials Jeremie.

"John? Is that you?" Jeremie asks from the other end.

"Yeah. Listen, I've found Yumi and Ulrich. Turns out Xana's taken control of all the robotic alien monsters that Finson was gonna use in his film. You _might_ want to have a sharpened piece of metal or something by you right now. And aim for the head! I'm guessing that's where the main hard drive or whatever is. I swear, this is like a freaking zombie apocalypse with aliens" He tells Jeremie over the phone, muttering the last part to himself almost.

"Got it." Jeremie replies, before talking to Odd who's apparently on Lyoko. As Jeremie does that, the trio hears banging coming from the opposite side of the barricaded door. This goes on for a few minutes as John gets ready to fight along with the other two, who have grabbed discarded pieces of sharp metal laying around the room. After a few minutes, the banging stops, and they can hear the thing hiss, before said hissing lowers in volume. After a couple minutes, Ulrich speaks up.

"You think he called it quits?" The brunette teen asks. John shakes his head in response.

"No. If anything, he's either getting his buddies to help him get in… Or he's searching for an alternate route." He tells them. After he says this, the trio hears multiple banging sounds come from within the walls. "And I'm guessing he's found one." He says with a glare. Not a couple minutes later, cracks start appearing in the ceiling. John quickly lifts his phone up to his ear. "Jeremie. You'd better almost be done over there. Because I'm guessing that we're gonna have company in a couple seconds." He tells the blond teen over the phone, just before the ceiling that was cracking caves in, releasing a small group of aliens. "Shit!" he shouts out, dropping his phone to the ground, and starts taking shots into the crowd of aliens streaming into the room with his crossbow. Every time he manages to take down an alien within the crowd, more just seem to take its place. As the aliens continue to swarm in, Ulrich and Yumi take care of the ones that try to get too close by stabbing them in the head, or smashing in said heads with their pieces of metal. But like always in these kinds of situations, the trio of protagonists start to get overrun, and have to back up towards the wall. While this happens, Yumi ends up tripping on a random piece of metal on the floor, and one of the aliens takes the opportunity to lift her by the neck with one of its tendrils.

Yumi begins to choke as the alien slowly strangles her, and John notices. "Yumi!" He yells out in alarm, quickly aiming at the alien that's strangling her, and shooting it clean through the head. The tendrils go slack, and Yumi is dropped to the ground with a **_~Thud!~ _**Causing her to let loose a grunt of pain when she hits the ground. John quickly rushes to her side, shooting into the crowd with his right hand as he does so thanks to his crossbow using clips and not needing to be reloaded each shot, and drapes one of her arms over his shoulders to help her stand. _Man. Thank god that clips were made for these things._ John thinks to himself as he backs up towards the corner with Ulrich and Yumi. Finally, he runs out of clips, and takes out his bowie knife, as well as a discarded piece of metal on the ground. Ready to use the two items in case the alien robots get too close to the group. Finally, just as it looks like the trio is going to be overrun, all the aliens' freeze, before going limp and dropping to the ground. The trio lets out sighs of relief at this. "Well guys, I'd say we did pretty well here today." John tells the other two with a smirk. Getting two smiles in return before the white dome spreads over them, and their vision turns to black.

* * *

Once again, John is woken up to the inferior sound that is the alarm clock. After that, he wakes up Jeremie with a smack to the back of his head, freshens up for the day, goes through his classes, watches the alien movie for the second time, and then watches as Ulrich manages to talk Finson out of using the factory by lying and telling him that it was used for a movie as a set before. At least, as far as the group knew it was a lie. After all was said and done, the group figured that they'd been lucky this time around, and John ended up realizing something. If more stuff like this happened and Xana attacked the actual factory… They weren't ready. Therefore, they needed to be better prepared. Thus, when he got home that night, he started up his computer, and began brainstorming ideas that he could implement. Looks like he had his weekend figured out.

* * *

**AN Part 2: Alright guys here's chapter 6! Wow, so those a few changes huh? Not only did I make it so that Yumi was also a technical advisor, but the movie script was changed to my liking by adding in hordes of aliens, instead of a single one. That and this entire thing took place during the night, as well as Sissi being stuck with the other workers in the loading dock area.**

**Also, Yeah, the reason I made it hordes of aliens was because John has stuff for the zombie apocalypse at his apartment, and if I kept with canon and only had ****_one_**** alien going after Yumi and Ulrich, all he really had to do was shoot it through the head, and bye-bye Xana attack. So therefore, hordes of aliens made it so that it wasn't that simple.**

**Alright, I think that's all I have to say about this chapter. So, thanks for those of you who stuck around this long, and see you next time!**

**(Updated: Jan. 13****th****, 2015:**

**Alright, so not that many changes besides a few details here and there. The same will probably be true for the next chapter, but hopefully I'll be able to get out at least one new chapter before I go on to focus on a different story. Anyways, onto the latest reviews for this story!**

***Michael*:**

It's nice to know that, as for my other stories, do as you like. I always like to see people reading multiple stories of mine. It lets me know that you like my writing. Also, as stated before, I have a method to my madness of changing episodes. (One of which is me finding it stupid that a year passes after the first twelve or so episodes, and then it takes another year before the series is actually finished… Yeah.) As for the last three, those will obviously stay the same, since they kind of _have to_ for the rest of the series to work out.

**Anime PJ:**

Cool! Kind of wish I had my own gas mask. As for Sissi's flirting, I've talked about it? Not to my knowledge… I'll go back through and look for it, but as far as I know, I've only written in Sissi flirting with Ulrich and no one else… But, you've hit on something that was in the recesses of my mind, so internet points to you! And thanks for the compliment on the chapter!

**That's about it for now guys. The next chapter should hopefully be up tomorrow, and I thank you all for taking the time out of your day to read this, and hope to see you all next time!)**


	7. Chapter 7: Rat Pack

**Chapter 7: Rat Pack**

* * *

**Author's Note Part 1: Whoa. Hey guys, sorry about how long it took for this chapter to come out. I've been trying to focus on my New Year's resolution, but as you can see, it's getting a little difficult to continue. But, I'm trying to work through it, and I'm determined to continue to update my older stories as much as I can! But, I make no promises since my ADD brain randomly decides what stories it wants me to work on, which can switch while I'm in the middle of updating a chapter for any of my stories.**

**But, I think that's enough of my ramblings, and you guys probably just want to get on with reading the update. So, here's the last updated chapter!**

* * *

**3****rd**** Person POV:**

* * *

Currently, the Lyoko group is sitting in the library for their study period. Jeremie was talking on his laptop with Aelita in a hushed voice so no one else could hear him, while John and Yumi looked on at Ulrich and Odd as they played an improvised version of table tennis, Aka Ping-Pong, with a crumpled up piece of paper, which they hit back and forth over a line of books. Ulrich manages to score another point, and John marks it in his computer. "Alright you guys. The score is Ulrich twenty-three, Odd twenty-two. Match point… Again." He announces. Odd nods as he picks up the crumpled up piece of paper, and gets ready to serve. When match point was announced, Jeremie looks up from his computer to see if this time Ulrich would win as opposed to the other two times this had happened. The two players begin to bat the paper ball back and forth.

Finally, Ulrich hits it hard enough that it seems like he'll get the point. However, Odd manages to get to it in time and hits it back. Just as it bounces off and seems like they're gonna have to go another round, Ulrich leans back in his chair, using his foot to catch the edge of the table and keep from falling to the ground, and hits the ball back. Getting the final point needed to finally win the game. "Game set and match." Yumi announces in favor of Ulrich. The brunette teen raises his hands in victory as Odd slouches a bit, and John marks the win down in his computer. Putting the tally of wins up to Ulrich: twelve, Odd: ten. John looks up from his computer just in time to see Ulrich loose his footing on the table and goes crashing to the ground. As the brunette teen pushes himself off the ground, Jim walks over to him with a scowl clear on his face.

"Ulrich! Is that what you call studying?" The gym teacher asks, the brunette giving a nervous grin in response. "In case you haven't noticed, _this_ is not the school yard. You are here to _work_ understand? And work means _silence_!" He continues as Ulrich sets the chair upright again and sits down, the two raven haired teens of the group trying to hide their laughter behind their hands at his misfortune. "And no more games from now on." He announces, glaring at Odd and Ulrich specifically. Just then, the door opens to show the principal walking in. John notices this, but apparently Jim doesn't. Because he suddenly whirls around before John can stop him, and assigns two hours of detention to him as he grabs his ear. Only to apologize as soon as he notices who he's talking to. Everyone in the Lyoko group stifles laughter at the scene, before going back to what they were doing. Well, Jeremie starts reading instead of talking on his laptop, while Odd and Ulrich start studying instead of playing their makeshift Ping-Pong game. While this happens, John and Yumi use the former's laptop, seeing as the duo had already finished their work.

After Jim lets go of the principal's ear, Delmas walks over next to Jeremie and turns to face him. "Um, Jeremie. Can you come to my office now, it's very important." He asks. Jeremie looks up at him questioningly, but nods and follows him out of the room after packing up his things. The group shares a glance as the two leave the library and Jim walks back to the desk he was sitting at before.

"Why do you think the principal wants to see Jeremie?" Yumi asks the group, getting shrugs in response.

"I don't know. Do you think he found about you-know-what?" Odd whispers to them, referencing Lyoko subtly in case of any ears listening in one their conversation. Only for John to shake his head.

"No. If it was _that_, no doubt he'd come storming in here and _demand_ to see Jeremie in his office. Remember the other time he found out about it?" John asks, referring to when the group had first started it up, only for Sissi to go all Benedict Arnold on them and show her father, as well as Jim, the super-computer. When they'd found out, their first reaction was to immediately inform the authorities about it. The group thinks about this for a minute, before they all nod in agreement. Instead of simply asking for Jeremie, no doubt Delmas would have walked right in here and _told_ him to go to his office.

* * *

When the period finishes a few minutes later, the group members pack up their things, and leave the library. They walk over to the main office building, and stand outside the doors, waiting for Jeremie to come out. Not three minutes later, the blond teen in question comes walking out. "Jeremie?" Odd asks him. Not getting an answer from the teen as he continues walking away from the building. The group shares glances at his behavior, before turning and looking after him. A few seconds later, they pick up their things, and follow him. Yumi and John are the first ones to reach him.

"What's going on?" Yumi asks Jeremie.

"Yeah man. You look like someone died… That's not it. Right?" John asks him nervously. Jeremie shakes his head at John's question.

"No. But, the principal went on and on. He told me that the school phycologist has been "observing me" for a while now, and he thinks that I'm an overly gifted student." He tells them, causing John's eyes to go wide.

"Is that all" Odd asks. "We thought it might have been something worse. Like, the principal finding out about the lab or something." He tells the other blond teen. John just shakes his head at Odd's response.

"No Odd, this is worse than you might think." John tells him, getting the purple-clad teen's attention. "If they think that Jeremie is _really _smart, then it's highly likely that they think Jeremie's too smart for this _school_, and if so, then they'll probably send him to a more gifted one." He tells them. This gets gasps from the others.

"So, are you telling me they'd send Jeremie to a school for, like, future Einstein's?" He asks the raven haired teen. Getting a nod in response.

"That _is_ serious. If you aren't here Jeremie, then we won't be able to go to Lyoko again. And Xana will be able to do what he wants." Yumi says, causing Jeremie to shake his head.

"It's not just that guys. I don't want to leave here because of you. We're friends." Jeremie tells them. Odd seems to think for a second, before walking over to Jeremie.

"Hold on, cool it. They can't _force_ you to change schools. Can they?" Odd asks him. Jeremie shakes his head once again. But not in a way that answers Odd's question, making John fear what Jeremie might actually say. And his fear is proven correct when Jeremie starts to talk again.

"It's not all that easy." Jeremie replies. "The phycologist said he couldn't _wait_ to talk to my parents. He told me that at a big school like the one they're gonna send me to, I'll be entitled to a big scholarship. My folks aren't gonna give up a great chance like that." Jeremie tells them dejectedly, before walking forwards so that he's in front of the group a bit. The rest of said group shares slightly downcast glances at this new information, before they reach the building filled with classes that they'll be taking.

* * *

As the bell rings to signify the end of the school day, the Lyoko group meets up outside the primary gym. "What's the big problem? You mess up on the test, and he'll think you're a total moron. Nobody'll ever know. And you'll be home free." Odd suggests.

"Sure, I've thought of that. Only there's a problem, because tests like that are filled with all kinds of trick questions. And if you _really_ want to mess up and make mistakes, you have to be very clever." Jeremie responds. At this, Yumi smiles.

"But that's great since you're the cleverest kid around." She tells him. John gives his own smile and gives a thumbs up to Jeremie in agreement with Yumi.

"Well okay. I'll do my best to flunk." He tells them. But John shakes his head.

"No. Don't flunk it." He tells Jeremie, making the others look at him in surprise and confusion. "If you do, it's likely that they'll think something is up. So make sure you get just over half of them wrong. Not all of them. We don't want them to realize you're faking, and make you re-take a different test." He tells the blond haired boy.

"Alright. But I can't promise anything." Jeremie tells them as he walks away towards the library, where the test is going to take place.

"I'll see you guys later. Keep me posted okay?" Yumi asks them as she pushes herself off the wall she was leaning against, and starts towards the gate so that she can head home.

"Sure. No problem Yumi." John replies. She nods to them, before walking off and waving over her shoulder. John turns to the two boys of the Lyoko group that are left. "Let's head off to the cafeteria. It's getting pretty close to dinner time, and I have a feeling that Odd is going to need and extra tray or two for how nervous he is about this. I know _I'm_ nervous." He tells them, getting two nods in agreement, before the trio heads off to eat. As they sit down at "their" table, other students begin trickling in slowly. Finally, when the John and Ulrich are on their second tray's, while Odd is on his fourth, it happens. All the lights go out in the cafeteria, including the ones in the kitchen, and from where John's sitting, it would appear that the ones in the school building went out as well.

A few minutes later, all the other students besides the trio of guys start to mess around. Some climb up onto the tables, some throw random trash around, and some just holler and yell out indescribable babble. Finally, Jim speaks up from the back of the room. "That's enough! Get back to your seats right now and quiet down! Go on, the lights will come on again soon! Now stop all your clowning around, understand?" He yells out. The only response he gets is people banging on tables at a slowly growing pace, slowly getting faster and louder until Ulrich and John hear a different noise that is.

"Everyone shut the hell up!" John yells out, holding his hands up and successfully gaining everyone's attention when Jim couldn't.

"Listen." Ulrich continues for him. The students and Jim do as he said, and hear what the other two boys heard. The sound of something scampering around in the ceiling.

"What the?" Jim asks no one in particular, before standing on one of the tables, and lifting one of the ceiling tiles, only to shout out and jump down off the table before landing on his back after he sees whatever it is. Though with all the racket, John suspects it to be…

"Rats!" Many people yell out in alarm as ceiling tiles fall down onto table and the ground due to the weight of all the rats, making all the students run away from them.

"We've got to get outta here!" Ulrich exclaims causing Odd and John to nod in agreement, before they use the tables to get to the doors, jumping from one to the other. The other students follow closely behind them, running along the floor with Jim and Rosa, the cook. Despite the situation, John can't help but find it ironic that they're cook is named Rosa, just like a certain cook in a book series about a certain Malachai. But he quickly shakes those thoughts away to re-focus on surviving the giant wave of rats. "Oh no!" Ulrich exclaims as he's the first to reach the door, followed by Odd, and finally John.

"Uh-oh." Odd says, seeing the giant crowd of rats right outside the door as if they were waiting for the group to leave so that they could tear into them.

"You've got to be _shitting_ me! We're stuck!" John exclaims.

"Nice going Xana. The rats all waited until nighttime. And they waited until we were all in the cafeteria too." Odd says, before looking over his shoulder with John as the group of students comes crashing into them. Trying to back away from the advancing crowd of rats _inside_ the cafeteria.

"Damn it! Did Xana possess every rat in the city?! Ulrich! Try and call Jeremie! I'll warn Yumi!" John exclaims, getting a nod from Ulrich in response, before the two of them take out their cellphones and dial their respective people. John only needs to wait until halfway through the second ring before Yumi picks up on the other end.

"Is that you John?" Yumi asks with happiness clear in her voice. Normally, John would feel the same way, and possibly actually attempt talking, since he'd gotten slightly better at talking to his crush. But, seeing as this is a Xana attack, he's serious enough to not worry about that kind of stuff right now.

"Yeah. Listen, we've got a problem. Xana might have decided to attack the school with a bunch of rats tonight." He tells her. The response he gets is expected.

"Huh? What?!" She yells out. He nods subconsciously even though he knows she can't see him.

"Yeah. We might need some help here. Think you can get out of the house and down to the school? Ulrich's trying to reach Jeremie now, but judging by his constant mumbling of "pick up" he's saying, I think it's safe to say that Jeremie's not answering.

"I'll be there soon." Yumi says through the phone, before cutting the call. John puts his phone away, before turning to Ulrich.

"Ugh, what's the matter? Why won't he _answer_?" Ulrich asks in annoyance.

"For all we know, his phone was confiscated by the proctor so that he could only focus on the test." John tells him, getting an annoyed grunt in response before Odd speaks up.

"The extinguishers Jim! Hurry up!" The blond teen yells out to the gym teacher currently frozen in panic.

"D-d-don't p-panic! J-j-just d-don't p-panic, okay!" He yells out as John walks over to the teacher as another kid runs past and grabs the extinguishers in question. John stops in front of the scared adult as the other student runs back and hands the extinguishers to Odd and Ulrich. Then, just before everyone leaves, John pulls back his hand, and…

**_~Smack!~_**

Every head turns in the direction of the loud sound to see that John had just slapped Jim across the face, breaking him out of his scared stupor, before the fifteen year old pulls Jim down by his red jacket to look him in the eyes. "You listen here Jim. There are a ton of kids here that need to get to safety, and _you're_ the adult here. So, are you going to start acting like it and get these kids out of here? Or are you going to keep being a little scaredy-cat, and try to hide away?!" He yells out, shocking the students and Jim, before the teacher straightens up.

"Y-you're right Hopper. I-I've got to be the adult here." He agrees, getting a nod of approval from John. Then, Jim turns to the crowd of students. "Everybody outside! Delerobia! Stern! Use those extinguishers to keep those vermin at bay!" He shouts out, getting nods in response. Then, he turns to John. "And Hopper… Thank you." He says, getting another nod, before they head outside.

"Get back you _ratas_!" Rosa exclaims as she beats the rats away using a tray, making John wonder if it's a coincidence the this Rosa and the one from "Chronicles of Nick" have the same name or not. Meanwhile, Odd and Ulrich use the extinguishers to spray the ground and make the rats back away. The last one outside is Rosa, who uses a key from the kitchen to lock the doors behind them so that the rats will have a harder time getting out. The students continue to keep the rats at bay for a few minutes, before Odd speaks up.

"There are way too many of them." Odd he says as he continues to help Ulrich use the extinguishers to keep the rats away from the group of students. "We'll never be able to hold them back all night." He continues. Suddenly, a yell is heard from the direction of the dorms building.

"Help! Help! Over here!" Odd, Ulrich and John turn to look in the direction of the voice, and see that Sissi is standing outside waving her arms. Unfortunately, not only does it gain the attention of the trio, but the hoard of rats as well.

"Sissi?! What's she doing here anyways?" Ulrich asks.

"Well, we have to help her or she'll be eaten alive!" Odd exclaims. John nods in agreement, before the sound of a bell going off is heard on the opposite side of the field from Sissi. John turns in that direction, and sees Yumi riding towards them on her bike.

"Well, here's Yumi. Let's hope she can help." He says, before looking at Yumi, and pointing towards Sissi. Yumi follows his finger, and nods in understanding. As Odd and Ulrich continue to keep the rats away from the students, they watch with John as Yumi helps Sissi get over to the rest of the students in question.

"Welcome to the rat pack." Odd welcomes them. A few minutes later, after Yumi and Sissi have been given trays to defend in case some of the rats break through, the former gets a phone call.

"Hello, Jeremie." She says, before listening to the blond haired teen on the other end. "Yes, the rats have attacked." She answers, before listening to Jeremie once again. "Alright, we'll meet you there." She replies, before cutting the call, and turning towards John and Odd. "We have to find a safer place." She tells them.

"Where? Huh?" Ulrich asks. "The rats are all over." He continues, only for Jim to speak up.

"I know where. The only building with no access to the sewers is the science building." He says, before turning around to face them. "Now, let's go!" He declares, getting nods in response. Although, some of the other students are a bit reluctant since that means they're going to need to walk through the crowd of rats. Odd and Ulrich press forwards with the extinguishers, while everyone else follows close behind. Yumi and John stick to the back, swatting away any rats that try to attack from the rear with the food trays. Finally, the group makes it to the science building safely. Jim immediately moves to the front, and unlocks the door. The rest of the students rush in, while Ulrich stays outside to cover them. Unfortunately, the extinguisher runs out, and he's forced to dive back inside. When this happens, Odd and John slam the double doors shut behind him, as the brunette leans against the wall to catch his breath. Giving a thumbs up to them in thanks.

"Alright, let's go up to the roof. If the rats get in, we'll be safe up there." Yumi tells them, opening the doors to the stairs that lead to the roof. All the students follow closely behind, while Ulrich and John stay at the back to close the doors. That way, if the rats get in, it will take longer for them to reach the group. Finally, the group makes it to the top, and John closes the door behind them, walking over to join Yumi, Ulrich and Odd in looking down over the edge of the roof to the sea of rats below. Unfortunately, all the rats seem to work off a hive mind with Xana, and chew through a tree, making it fall down and crash through some of the windows of the first floor.

"Damn it." John mutters when he sees this.

"We have to go to the factory. Jeremie will meet us there. Well, as soon as he can that is." Yumi tells them, making Ulrich turn to look at her.

"Sounds great, but how do we get there? Huh?" He asks. As he asks this, Odd walks around the roof, trying to find _something_ that would help them. He ends up finding a fire hose, and calls the others over to it. They toss it down so that it's an improvised rope, and Yumi, and Odd are the first ones down. Ulrich looks over the edge, and sways a little. John puts a hand on his shoulder, making the brunette turn to face the raven haired teen.

"Ulrich. We might need someone to stay here and make sure these guys are alright. Do you think you can do that?" John asks him. Ulrich nods in response, silently glad that John wasn't outright saying that his fear of heights was the reason for this. John nods back, before grabbing the hose just before he hears another voice call out.

"Wait, come back! What are you doing?!" John turns around to find Jim looking at him.

"Don't worry Jim. We need help here, so we're gonna go get it." He tells the gym teacher, before sliding down the rope towards the other two.

"Woah! Hey, come back here! Come back here you hear?!" Jim shouts down at him just before he reaches the ground. When he does, he turns towards the other two.

"Let's go." He tells them, getting nods in response. As they run towards the entrance to the sewers in the forest, Yumi and Odd turn towards John.

"Why isn't Ulrich coming?" Odd asks, making John turn to face him.

"Someone needs to stay behind with the students to make sure they're fine." He replies, turning to face Yumi as well. He gets nods of understanding in response, just before they reach the manhole cover. When John removes it, a swarm of rats was what greeted the trio. John quickly drops the manhole cover back in place, before turning towards Yumi for advice.

"We've got no other choice. We'll have to go through the city." She tells them. The other two nod at her, before they leave the forest and head towards the Iron Gate entrance to the academy. They quickly leave, running through the city towards the factory. Unfortunately, they don't arrive to a welcomed sight. The entire bridge was covered in rats, blocking their entrance.

"Wow. Xana sure did think of everything." Odd comments. John smirks slightly.

"Not everything. Come on!" He exclaims, running off to the side and vaulting a railing before sliding down the small ramp that lead to the walkway next to the lake. Odd and Yumi look over said rail, and see John standing next to an inflated raft.

"Care for a ride?" He asks them. They share a glance, before vaulting over the railing, and getting into the raft. John gets in after them, and begins rowing with Odd.

"Why do you have a raft?" Odd asks while they row. John looks at him with a raised eyebrow.

"I have gas masks, a crossbow, and a multitude of other things for the coming zombie apocalypse, and you ask me why I have a _raft_?" John asks him, getting stifled laughter from Yumi, and causing Odd to visibly sag. Until he notices something behind them.

"Um, not to worry you, but look out!" He exclaims, pointing towards the swarm of rats swimming towards them. John puts more power behind his rows with Odd following his example, making it so that the group arrives on the island the factory is on a few seconds later. The group quickly jumps off the raft, not bothering to tie it up, and runs toward the entrance at the back that leads to the boiler room.

"Come one, come on!" John exclaims, waving the other two to enter. They do so, and he's the last in, slamming the doors shut just before the rats are able to enter. The trio shares a breath of relief, before they go running through the factory, and sneak towards the elevator. Trying to make sure they don't gain the attention of any rats that may have been left behind on the bridge. They successfully make it, and use the elevator to reach the computer room. Yumi leaves the duo, and the two boys continue down into the scanner room. They enter the scanners, and Yumi begins the virtualization process. The familiar feeling of being stretched hits them, before everything goes black.

* * *

Suddenly, the blackness is replaced by the terrain of the desert sector. Odd lands in a crouch while John rolls with the landing and brings out his sniper. Ready for a Xana-fied welcome party. Luckily, there's no such party, and he slings the sniper across his back again. "Alright, you did it Yumi." Odd says.

"Do you see Aelita?" Yumi's voice echoes across the land, and Odd and John look around for any sign of the pinkette.

"Nope. But she should be around here somewhere." John replies, only for Yumi to speak up again.

"Oh no. I didn't enter the right coordinates! I virtualized you too far away from Aelita!" She exclaims. John shrugs as Odd responds to her exclamation.

"That's okay. We could use a little exercise to get warmed up." The blond haired teen tells her, before the duo goes running off in the direction Yumi tells them.

"Oh sure. What? The run over to the factory not enough for you Odd?" John asks him as they continue to run.

"Eh, I feel like it could have been longer." He replies. John just chuckles at this, before he notices a dust cloud in the distance. He skids to a stop, followed closely by Odd. Yumi notices they've stopped, and speaks up.

"Do you see Aelita now?" She asks. The duo focuses on the cloud, and sees Aelita just in front of it.

"Yeah, we see her!" Odd exclaims, only for two more shapes to be seen in the cloud.

"Yeah, though the unfortunate part is that she's brought some friends." John says, unslinging his sniper rifle from his back, and aiming it at the approaching Krabs chasing Aelita. She manages to speed up, and reach the duo before the Krabs can get to her.

"Welcome to the party princess." John greets, kneeling down on one knee and aiming at Xana's approaching monsters through the largest lens on his sniper.

"That was close. I only just managed to get away." She tells them.

"Well don't worry too much about it. You're knights in shining armor are here to help." Odd tells her with a thumbs up. John just scoffs at this and rolls his eyes.

"She's a princess, and we're knights. Right. You know… That brings up something I've been wondering actually. Why is it that Aelita has the nickname "princess", but none of us have any?" he asks, still aiming at the Krabs. Which stop a good deal away from them for some reason.

"Now's not really the time for that John." Yumi tells him. He just shrugs.

"Alright. Just wondering is all." He replies. Then, he watches as the Krabs use their legs to dig into the ground. Almost as if they were expecting an earthquake or something. John wonders why, and his question is answered within the next few seconds as the land starts to tilt. "Oh shit." John mumbles, before using one of his shots to burn a hole in the ground, and then sticks the barrel of his sniper into said hole. As Odd tries to use his claws to dig into the ground, Aelita hangs onto John's legs to keep from falling.

"John? Odd? What's happening?" Yumi asks them.

"My guess? Xana-Ahhhhhhhhh!" John replies, yelling at the end as a shot from one of the Krabs makes him recoil. Still hanging tightly to the sniper and causing it to be pulled out of the hole with him. This happens at the same time Odd is hit by a laser from the other Krab, and makes the trio begin falling. While this happens, Aelita focuses, and creates a ledge for them to land on. They all feel pain when they do, but they're distracted from it when lasers from the two Krabs start raining down on them. Then, the two begin to only focus on Aelita, and John immediately jumps in front of her. Taking the full brunt of the attack, and only thinking about her safety. A few seconds later, Odd manages to push himself to his feet, and push the two of them towards the wall-that-used-to-be-ground, following quickly behind them.

John thinks about it for a minute, before turning towards the other two. "Odd. Make sure to cover Aelita. She's lost too many lifepoints, and it's highly likely that I don't have that many either." He tells them, before turning around and jumping onto one of the other ledges that Aelita had created while they were falling. He continues to jump from one to another, making sure to get a good hold on one rock before transitioning to another. Finally, he gets to a ledge large enough that he can stand on it. Unfortunately, one of the two Krabs notices him, and turns to shoot at him. Fortunately, he's able to use his sniper to "Short-circuit" the shots coming at him, while one manages to hit the Krab on the Lyoko symbol. The Krab seems to go into a seizure for a moment due to this, before blowing up and scattering red binary code.

The explosion gains the attention of the other Krab, and it turns around to face John. Then, it starts walking towards him along the wall while shooting it's lasers. A couple manage to hit him, and Odd speaks up from where he and Aelita are standing. "Get out of there John!" He cries out. John turns, and jumps onto another rock. As he tries to make his way to a safer place, one of the lasers shoots out the rock that he was holding onto at the time. For John, time seems to slow down. His brain stops working as he takes into account the only thing beneath him… is the digital sea. He can hear his name being shouted, but he doesn't respond.

_Yumi… I'm sor-_ his thoughts are cut off as he's struck by another laser blast. De-virtualizing him.

* * *

The scanner doors open up to show John at the same time the _elevator_ doors are opening. When they do so, Yumi is shown standing there, and when she notices John, she immediately rushes in and wraps him into a hug. John's shocked at first, but slowly returns it. When they break apart, they're both blushing up to their ears. "_~Ehem~_, uh… A-Aelita probably needs you right now." John tells her.

"Y-yeah." Yumi replies, before entering the scanner after John exits it. He gives her a small smile and wave, just before the doors close. After composing himself, John walks over to the elevator and rides it up to the computer room. By the time he reaches the top, Yumi has saved Aelita just after Odd was de-virtualized. The pinkette enters the tower, and shuts it down. Thus stopping the rat attack on the students back at the academy. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief, before Jeremie states "Return to the past now." Everything goes white for the group, before turning black.

For John, after waking up once again, the next few hours pass much like they do after the other Xana attacks. He wakes up to the sound of his alarm, gets ready for the day, goes through his classes for the day, and then ends up meeting the group at the study session. When this happens, they decide not to do the impromptu game of Ping-Pong, and talk about the test that Jeremie will be taking that night instead. "So Jeremie, did you find out a way to stay here at Kadic?" Yumi asks him.

"Well, now that I know all the questions, I shouldn't have that much trouble giving the wrong answers for most of them." He responds.

"Are you sure that's gonna work?" Ulrich asks him.

"Yes. But if it doesn't, I've got another full proof way of failing." He tells them as he crosses his hands behind his head and leans back. John smirks at this.

"You're gonna ask Odd for the answers. Aren't you?" He asks with a knowing smirk.

"Yup." Jeremie replies, getting laughs from the others. Odd looks at them with mock hurt.

"Yeah, yeah. Go ahead and laugh it up. But who knows? You might be in for a big surprise." Odd tells them, only for Jim to get angry and tell them to be quiet. John just smirks and hides his laughing. All those times he'd done so in classes and in libraries before this was making it easier for him than for the others. Shown by the fact that Jim skipped over him when he started glaring at the others for laughing.

_Well, I guess that's _one_ good thing this Xana attack did._ John thinks to himself with a smirk. _It made it so that Jeremie's gonna be able to stay here no matter what._

* * *

**Author's Note Part 2: Alright, here's the newest chapter in this Fanfiction! Sorry it took a while for those of you interested, but I started getting ideas for other stories, and started switching between this one and the other ones almost every hour. But anyways, yeah, A few things were changed in this episode. Why? Because John was involved. If you ever question why something is changed in the plot, the simple answer is "Because John is there". That, or because I find it incredibly stupid what they do. (Ex: Jeremie tells the others he's going to the factory ****_in front of Sissi_**** during one of the earlier episodes.)**

**So as some of you may have noticed, I skipped quite a few episodes to get to this one. Why? For advancement of the plot. Those episodes will be coming later on, some much later, but this is because I got ideas while watching them, and said ideas will help the plot line move along in a way I want it to when they happen.**

**Anyways, thanks for those of you that stuck around this long to read this, and see you all next time!**

**(Updated April 5****th****, 2015:**

**Holy shit Batman! I am ****_so_**** sorry that it took so long for this to get out. See, like my AN above from the first time that I wrote this, it's true that I ended up coming up with all new stories to write, but at the same time, I've been working on my New Year's Resolution of working on my past stories. So, mix those two together, and it turns out that it's difficult to work on ****_all_**** my stories that are out right now.**

**Alright, so I actually got a few reviews for my last updated chapter, so here are the replies to said reviews.**

**PhantomDragon99:**

Good to know, and I hope that it was good to read as well!

**Anime PJ:**

Well, nice to see that you agree with my reasoning. As for the awkwardness, I'm working on that, since when I first started to write this out, that's how I would react in real life. However, I've started to write stories where my character is less nervous, so I'm going to try to slowly make John act that way, since I've gotten worse at writing it the way that it is now.

**Michael *Guest*:**

Good to see you liked that chapter! As for all his stuff for the zombie apocalypse, and the episode where Xana does that… I have plans… Many, many plans… (Insert evil laughter here)

**ShadowAngel *Guest*:**

Nice to see that you like the story, and I hope to keep you entertained!

**Anyways, I think that's about it for this update. So, look forwards to the next one, since I'm hoping to get it out soon! Thanks for taking the time out of your day to read this, and I hope to see you all next time!)**


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